The city's Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD) this month plans to crackdown on businesses over exploiting groundwater, said an agency official.
"We will target hotels, apartments and shopping centers. Multi-story buildings are usually the biggest violators of groundwater usage," said BPLHD's head of law enforcement, Ridwan Panjaitan.
The areas being targeted will include Pondok Indah in South Jakarta, he said.
Based on the agency's data, the most common violation was customers using more groundwater than permitted by their quota.
Some residents also create artesian wells without a permit.
Ridwan said the BPLHD would use the data from tap water companies, PT Aetra Air Jaya and PT PAM Lyonaisse Jaya (Palyja), to investigate quota violations.
Palyja will provide data from customers in West Jakarta, Central Jakarta and South Jakarta, while Aetra will provide data from East Jakarta, he said.
"We will collect data from the tap water companies, as well as customer data, and then cross-check the data with their water meters to detect whether they have violated their usage."
The agency's plan to crackdown on water usage has gained support from law enforcers, such as the police, prosecutors and judges.
Those who are found guilty of overexploiting groundwater could be fined from Rp 5 million (US$4,545) to Rp 50 million and receive a six month sentence, as stipulated by the 2008 Public Order Law, Ridwan said.
He said this would be the first time the law would be implemented for groundwater violations, since law enforcers previously used the 1998 bylaw on groundwater usage to punish offenders.
"The 1998 bylaw only offers light sanctions, including warnings, license revocation and closure of artesian wells. Most violators are also OK if they are fined, because the fines are still cheaper than their tap water costs."
Many households and buildings prefer to use groundwater as their main water supply.
Three months ago, the agency held a similar crackdown in Sukabumi Utara subdistrict in West Jakarta, during which 65 laundry businesses were found guilty of overexploiting groundwater.
"We closed their wells, but they reopened them," Ridwan said.
Excessive use of groundwater has caused a water crisis and sinking in the city, experts say.
The groundwater level has dropped by 1.5 meters over the past few decades.
The BPLHD recorded that land in several areas in Central Jakarta and North Jakarta had subsided by up to 2 meters during the past 17 years.
To encourage residents to use tap water, as well as to address land subsidence problems through groundwater conservation, the city administration announced new groundwater tax rates in June.
The tax rates are between six and 16 times higher than the previous ones, depending on the tax payers' threshold.
Households will be charged as much as Rp 8,800 (US 88 cents) per cubic meter of water, or 16 times the previous tariff of Rp 525 per cubic meter, while businesses will be charged as much as Rp 23,000 per cubic meter.
The new tax rates are expected to conserve 3.1 million cubic meters of groundwater.
Environmental activists and the administration have also called on Jakartans to dig biopore holes in their yards in order to increase the city's supply of groundwater.
