Water crisis in Thousand Islands

JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of residents living in the Seribu (Thousand) Islands chain off Jakarta Bay are suffering from a serious clean water shortage, it was declared yesterday.

The secretary of the Thousand Islands district in North Jakarta, Unu Makmum, said that residents living in Pulau Panggang and Pulau Kelapa faced the most severe water crisis with water levels in their wells declining drastically.

On Pulau Panggang, he said, people used to take clean water from four-meter deep wells, but now they could not accommodate about the 3,800 residents due to the water shortage.

In Pulau Kelapa, two wells, which usually accommodated around 6,200 residents, could no longer provide enough water as well, he said.

Unu said that the Armed Forces, in cooperation with the city- owned Water Company, PDAM Jaya, had supplied water to the islands by ship, but that the ships could not dock at the islands.

"People have to unload the water from the middle of the sea by boat," Unu was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying yesterday.

He estimated that total demand for water in the Thousand Islands residents is estimated at around 80 tons a day.

ABRI and PDAM had supplied 80 tons of water by ship since Thursday to several islands, such as Untung Jawa, Panggang, Tidung, Kelapa and Pramuka.

Complaints about water shortages have soared during this year's dry season.

The meteorology agency has predicted that rain will start falling in Jakarta in about a fortnight. (ste)