Water Supply in Rawa Buaya, West Jakarta, Only Flows at Midnight: PAM Jaya's Explanation
Residents on Jalan H. Djairi, RT 05 RW 02, Rawa Buaya, Cengkareng, West Jakarta, have complained about the piped water supply only flowing in the middle of the night.
This situation has been confirmed by PAM Jaya. The cause is that the residential area is at the very end of the distribution network.
PAM Jaya’s Senior Manager for Corporate & Customer Communication, Gatra Vaganza, explained that Rawa Buaya’s position at the end of the distribution means residents often run out of supply because the water is used up first by other customers.
“When water is used simultaneously, those living at the end definitely get the leftovers, roughly speaking. But during off-peak hours when people aren’t using water, naturally their front neighbours aren’t using it, so they get the water (at midnight),” said Gatra when contacted by Kompas.com by telephone on Tuesday (14/4/2026).
He likened water distribution to a flow passing through 100 customer houses, where the water volume continuously decreases at each point passed.
In addition, Gatra acknowledged the still high rate of pipe leaks or Non-Revenue Water (NRW) in the PAM Jaya network, which makes water distribution not yet optimal.
As a result, areas at the end of the network can only receive maximum supply when most other customers are not using water, namely at night.
Regarding the dirty and smelly water quality, Gatra said this is caused by the thinning of raw water supply.
“So the source of the water is from TKR (Tirta Kerta Raharja), the PDAM in Tangerang. We buy bulk water from there to put in our reservoirs. They had a supply disruption from TKR due to rubbish interference from their raw water source in Bogor,” said Gatra.
“Simply put, if we’re in a tower, and we forget to clean the tower, when the water level drops, the remaining sediment definitely rises to the network. That’s more or less it (the cause of the black and smelly water),” said Gatra.
As a long-term solution, PAM Jaya is actually relying on supply from the central government’s Karian-Serpong Drinking Water Supply System (SPAM) project for the West Jakarta area.
However, the project, originally targeted for completion in 2023, has been delayed and has not yet operated to this day.
On the other hand, the number of customers continues to increase along with the installation of new pipe networks, without being matched by an increase in raw water production.