Water bill to increase in June
JAKARTA (JP): Subscribers of the City Water Company, PDAM Jaya, will have to pay an average of 40 percent more for their water bills as of this June.
According to H. Machmud Ranusemito, the company's director of administration and finance, the increase is necessary because the price of raw water supplied by the Jatiluhur Dam Authority will be raised from Rp 22 to Rp 25 per cubic meter.
"Actually, the Jatiluhur Authority has asked for the increase last January, but we have requested that they postpone the measure until June," he said.
Machmud said that the increase is also to help defray the loss incurred by PDAM Jaya because of subsidies it has been giving to household subscribers. Household subscribers make up 85 percent of around 327,000 subscribers PDAM Jaya now has.
Machmud told reporters about the planned increase after a luncheon with members of the Jakarta City Council's Commission C on finance and Commission D on city development in Tangerang regency.
"We are waiting for a formal approval of the scheduled increase from Governor Surjadi Soedirdja in the form of a gubernatorial decree," he said.
The councilors yesterday visited the Tangerang Regency Water Company to hold a hearing with the company's president, Chusfani Kartadikaria, on the development of the Cisadane-Serpong water transmission project. The project is scheduled to increase Jakarta's water supply at the end of 1996.
"If the Cisadane-Serpong project is completed, it will increase the current supply capacity of 12,800 liters of water per second to 18,500 liters per second in 1996," Machmud said.
This means that PDAM Jaya will be able to serve 64 percent of Jakarta's population in the year 2000, Machmud said, adding that currently PDAM Jaya is able to serve only 44 percent of the population.
Machmud told The Jakarta Post that last year, the cost price for up to 30 cubic meters of water consumed per month was Rp 1,100 per cubic meter -- now it is Rp 1,400 per cubic meter -- but the selling price to household subscribers was and is still Rp 350 without distinguishing the users.
"Hence, as of June, we will divide household subscribers into four groups, group A for subscribers who live in very modest houses, group B for those living in modest houses, group C for those in average houses and group D for luxurious houses," he said.
Subscribers whose houses are rated as very modest will receive a subsidy of Rp 800 per cubic meter of water, those with modest ones will receive a subsidy of Rp 675, Machmud said.
Subsidies
Subscribers in average and luxurious houses will no longer receive subsidies, Machmud said, adding that subscribers who dwell in average houses will be required to pay Rp 1,400, exactly the same as the cost price.
The increase is also seen as necessary by the World Bank, which has given PDAM Jaya loans for the construction of its various water supply projects, Machmud said.
"Based on agreements with the World Bank, PDAM Jaya is committed to increasing the subscription fees every three years," Machmud said.
"The World Bank deems the increase necessary to facilitate PDAM Jaya's liquidity so it can pay its debts," Machmud added.
Machmud said PDAM Jaya has received around Rp 500 billion out of the Rp 1.1 trillion the World Bank has pledged to give in loans and that PDAM Jaya has used the loans to finance the construction of the Buaran One and Two water installations.
Machmud said that the increase was also prompted by the increase in overhead costs, prices of various chemicals, and other production-related costs over the past three years.
According to Machmud, PDAM Jaya now has three water supply sources -- The Jatiluhur Dam, the Ciburial spring and the Cisadane-Serpong project of the Tangerang Regency Water Company, whose operation is scheduled to begin in 1996.
Machmud told the Post that the city now has five large water installations, the Pejompongan One and Two with capacities of 2,000 and 3,000 liters of water per second, the Buaran One and Two, with similar capacities to those of the Pejompongan installations, with the other one in Pulogadung, which has a capacity of 4,000 liters of water per second.
The city also has two middle-sized installations in Cilandak, South Jakarta, with a capacity of 300 liters per second and Taman Kota, West Jakarta, with a capacity of 200 liters per second, Machmud said.
The Ciburial spring has a capacity of 200 liters of water per second, Machmud said. He added that the spring, located in Bogor but in the possession of PDAM Jaya since the Dutch colonial era, is scheduled to be returned to the Bogor city water company in October.
Machmud said PDAM Jaya also has seven small installations, called mini-water plants, each with a capacity of 10 liters per second and nine windmills delivering 2 to 3 liters of water per second. (06)