Wasting water

I would like to refer to a subject which is obviously becoming more serious; the drinking water supply in Jakarta. During the five years I have lived in Jakarta, I had the opportunity to frequently observe an irresponsible waste of drinking water in private households, as well as in restaurants and hotels (and as far as I am told the situation is not different in public buildings and government offices). The main reason for this waste is leaking water faucets and defective flush toilets. And there is obviously no difference between modest and rich households, simple and noble restaurants, one star and five star hotels.

Whenever, wherever or to whomever (owner, manager, waiter, room boy/maid etc.) I reported the defect, the answer was mostly the same: a heart-warming smile and the words sudah lama rusak (it has been out of order for a long time). And when I asked -- with same friendly smile, of course -- why they had not fixed it yet, the answer was usually nanti (later) or besok (tomorrow). But according to my experiences, nothing usually happened. From some waiters/waitresses I even got the answer "Why should I care, this is the responsibility of the boss".

Imagine, if only one water tap was leaking, this could mean a loss of approximately 40 liters per day (24 hours) or 14,600 liters per year. If only one flush toilet was leaking, this could mean a loss of approximately 120 liters per day, or 43,800 liters per year. Let's assume that some 100,000 water faucets and another 50,000 flush toilets are leaking in households, hotels, restaurants, public buildings and government offices (these numbers might even be too small), this would mean an aggregated loss of 10,000,000 liters per day, or 3,650,000,000 liters (3,650,000 cubic meter) per year, of most valuable drinking water. This amount would be sufficient for the yearly water consumption of about 15,000 average households.

These figures show how important it is to reduce water losses by merely taking better care of water faucets and flush toilets. With the permission of the City Government, I would therefore like to suggest that a massive awareness campaign be started, for example, by attaching information leaflets to the monthly water bills. People must learn to understand that it is their water, and not the water of the government or their bosses, which they are wasting.

HILDE MAY

Jakarta