A one-month survey by the Indonesian Consumer Foundation (YLKI) shows that dirty tap water and a "mysterious" tariff increase are the top complaints about tap water by consumers in Jakarta.

The YLKI, which conducted the survey along with the Tap Water Users Committee (KPAM) and the Jakarta Water Supply Regulatory Body from Nov. 17 to Dec. 10, revealed the survey results in two meetings with consumers.

The first meeting, on Thursday, was held for customers of PT Aetra Air Jakarta, which supplies tap water to the eastern part of Jakarta. The second meeting, for PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) customers, was held on Saturday. Both companies are sub-contractors of the city water company, PAM Jaya.

"I never have a constant flow of tap water in my home, and when I do, it is usually dirty," Joko, an Aetra consumer from Tanah Tinggi in Central Jakarta, said at the first gathering.

"Aetra said we owed them Rp 676 million (US$67,600), but we have proof that we have always made our payments on time," Toto Suprapto, an Aetra consumer from the low-cost Pulo Gadung apartments said, showing the payment receipts.

"They cut off our water supply in the fasting month (September). They said that we had to pay for the arrears and the fines, when in fact we always paid them," he added.

Despite the poor service water prices in Jakarta, at an average of Rp 7,000 per cubic meter, are the highest in Indonesia, Irzal Z. Djamal, head of the Jakarta Water Supply Regulatory Body said during the first meeting.

Representatives from Aetra were present during the gathering but volunteered no comments.

Aetra's business services director, Rhamses Simanjuntak, said in a phone interview that one of the reasons why customers received low quality water was because they use water-pumps.

"Even the slightest crack could spoil the water's quality as water and other substances outside the distribution pipe might mix with the water from the pipe. Customers should not be using water pumps," he told The Jakarta Post.

Responding the customers' claims that they had to use water pumps because of poor water pressure, Rhamses said Aetra was trying their best to solve the problem.

"We are currently proposing our investment plan to PAM Jaya for rehabilitation on pipes and infrastructures to improve our services in the next five years," he said.

According to Rhamses, Aetra is planning to add a new booster pump in Cilincing, North Jakarta and to upgrade their booster pumps in Sungai Bambu and Sumur Batu in North and Central Jakarta. The project is due for completion in early 2009, according to Rhamses' estimation.

Booster pumps are used to increase pressure in water lines, or to pull water from a storage tank. Aetra invested Rp 5 billion for a booster pump in Cilincing, which can pump 700 liters of water per second. During the gathering for Palyja customers, YLKI head Indah Sukmaningsih said dirty water and lack of distribution were both "classic" problems.

"What we really need to focus on is the sudden change of criteria for the grouping of tap water consumers. The criteria change increases the tariff between 50 to 150 percent for each consumer," she said.

Water tariffs are categorized based on the condition of the buildings they supply. Low-cost apartment tenants, for example, pay much lower tariffs that those who live in luxury apartments. Many customers said water operators sometimes change their tariff category after they have their houses renovated.

Sofyan Hadi from KPAM said they are currently conducting research to find proof regarding the tariff changes.

"About three months ago they suddenly changed the criteria for Group 2 consumers from 36-square-meter buildings to 28-square-meters," he added.

He said they objected to the criteria change because it tripled the tariffs from Rp 1,050 to Rp 3,550 for former Group 2 consumers who are now categorized as Group 3A. Palyja did not inform customers about the change, he said.

"When we have gathered enough proof that they changed the criteria without informing the consumers and increased the tariffs for their own benefit, KPAM along with YLKI and other NGOs will file a class action lawsuit against Palyja as early as January 2009," Sofyan said.

Palyja representatives did not provide any comments during the gathering.

"There were six representatives from Palyja attending the gathering, but because of a policy between us and the regulatory body, we only served as observers," Palyja Corporate Communication Head, Meyritha Maryanie, told The Jakarta Post by phone.

"We will list all the complaints the regulatory body compiled in the gathering. They promised that they will submit all of them to us by Tuesday," she said.

Meyritha also denied that Palyja did not properly inform their consumers regarding the changes in group criteria.

"The criteria change was made based on a Memorandum of Understanding between Palyja, PAM Jaya and Aetra in 2005 but the implementation began during the third quarter of 2007," she said.

Meyritha said Palyja had informed their consumers by mail, but did so in several phases. In the first phase, they mailed 5,000 consumers and by 2008 had almost finished mailing consumers.

"It is impossible for us to visit our tens of thousands consumers one by one, so we choose to mail them instead," she said.

Palyja recently submitted a proposal to the city administration to increase water tariffs by an average 22.7 percent in 2009 to fund their Rp 200 million investment for the year. Palyja said they would use the investment for infrastructure rehabilitation and an improvement of service quality. (hdt)

Popular

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Analysis: Indonesia denies normalization with Israel to enter OECD

Citroen to produce electric cars in Indonesia