TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Developers start building water treatment plants
Rare view: An officer inspects a sewage treatment plant at Lippo Village in Tangerang, Banten
Change Size
Rare view: An officer inspects a sewage treatment plant at Lippo Village in Tangerang, Banten. A number of developers have equipped their housing estates with modern sewage treatment plant. JP/Prodita Sabarini
Light brown water flowed rapidly at a privately owned sewage system plant in Tangerang. A slightly foul odor lingered from the plant, but the smell was better than what comes out of the city’s putrid gutters.
With only 3 percent of Jakarta and its surrounding areas connected to a sewerage system, sewage treatment plants are a rarity.
This one is located in Lippo Village, a privately developed residential and business complex covering 3,600 hectares. It processes sewage from around 10,000 families living in the area.
While the city administration has not been able to provide adequate waterworks infrastructure for the city – having only a sewage treatment plant in Setiabudi, South Jakarta, and waste treatment facilities in Pulo Gebang, East Jakarta, and Duri Kosambi, West Jakarta – the private sector (i.e. real estate de-velopers) is investing in sanitation systems.
The latest move to build a sani-tation system was in 2002, when the city signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) worth US$5.3 billion with an Australian company to develop a proper sanitation system.
Under the agreement, the company was to construct a deep tunnel sewerage system to treat all liquid waste in the capital.
However, there has been no follow-up to the agreement until recently, apparently due to financial constraints.
Poor sanitation leads to water pollution in the city’s rivers.
The city environmental agency has repeatedly reported the presence of E. coli bacteria in all of the 13 rivers it regularly monitors throughout the city.
The two tap water operators in Jakarta – PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) and PT Thames PAM Jaya (TPJ) which currently bear the name PT Aetra Air Jakarta – have frequently complained about the quality of the water they must treat to turn into potable water.
Private companies that can afford to invest in sanitation systems at their estates said their reasons were not only environmental but also economical.
Furthermore, developers are obliged to provide sanitation systems at their project sites under a 2005 gubernatorial decree on waste water treatment.
Cornelia Retno, the water and sanitation manager of Lippo Karawaci, the developer of Lippo Village, said the initial investment for the waterworks system in the early 1990s reached billions of rupiah.
“It is profitable in the long term,” she said.
She said that because of the infrastructure, the value of property at Lippo Village continued to rise at an average of 20 percent each year.
The largest integrated property developer also developed Lippo Cikarang and Royal Serpong Village. It launched Kemang Village, an integrated city project in South Jakarta worth US$880 million in late 2007, and is building the $1.2 billion St. Moritz Penthouses and Residences in the Puri Indah Central Business District.
In Lippo Village, the houses are connected to sewage pipes, which transport wastewater to a sewage treatment plant. The plant processes 130 liters of waste per second. The water is then stored in basins or used to water plants.
The town also has a water treatment plant, which process tap water from the local water company into potable drinking water.
Retno said the company was currently studying the possibility of using the basin as a water source.
Another property giant Agung Podomoro Group also invests in sanitation system. The company, which managed to survive the 1997 Asian financial crisis, is embarking on a massive project called Podomoro City in West Jakarta. Occupying a 21-hectare block, the project will consist of 15 apartment towers, malls and office areas.
CEO of Agung Podomoro group Handaka Santosa said there would be sewage treatment plants and a water treatment plant at Podomoro City.
“It is profitable. Water is expensive. So rather than throwing it away, we will reuse it,” he said.
Handaka, however, said the government should provide the city with a proper sanitation system. Educating the public about keeping the rivers clean is also important, he said.
The small river behind Senayan City Mall in South Jakarta is another project of Agung Podomoro Group.
“At first I put a metal fork to trap the flowing garbage in the river.
The result was three trucks full of garbage every day. I decided to take the fork out as it was costly,” he said.
At the site, a resident threw a bucket of rubbish into the river.
“You saw that with your own eyes, didn’t you?” he said.
“Education, it’s important.”
