"We will sue those who are responsible, including the water operator. They allegedly breached the law on consumers protection," YLBHI head Patra M. Zen told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

He said his office would need two weeks to prepare the case and decide the most appropriate legal standing.

"We are still discussing whether to use YLBHI or the residents *in a class action* as plaintiff," he said, adding that his office would also prepare a criminal lawsuit.

Patra said the lawsuits were aimed at forcing the city administration realize the importance of clean water issues.

He said the water operator's standard quality service was not applied in Muara Baru.

"What the water operator promise is different from what they deliver. According to residents, the water flowed well after they protested, but was problematic again after a few days," he said.

He said other complaints included dirty water and costly bills.

"Tap water operators should deliver clean water. Many countries terminated contracts with private water operators for poor performance.

"The governments then manage the services themselves," he said.

Patra said his office was working with the People's Coalition for the Right to Water (KRuHa) and welcomed the involvement of other organizations.

Palyja spokeswoman Meyritha Maryanie said in a text message that her company would try to resolve the complaints and settle problems carefully.

Meanwhile, Tulus Abadi of the Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI) said his office would work with the YLBHI to support the legal action.

"I think the lawsuit is a necessary move. We once offered to file a class action for Muara Baru residents, but they said they were not ready," he said.

He said in the past 10 years, clean water and electricity were the top subjects of customer complaints submitted to the YLKI.

"We receive hundreds of complaints every year. We received 450 complaints about *PAM Jaya* in 2008," he said, referring to the city-owned company that cooperated with two operators, Palyja and PT Aetra Air Jakarta.

Tulus said complaints of the two water operators included poor water quality, inconsistency of water flow and changes to the customer category, which affected the water tariff.

He said the customer quota set out in the contract between PAM Jaya and the two water operators was too low.

"The small increase in customers' quotas is not realsitic for a contract with foreign partners," he said.

According to PAM Jaya's latest report, the two operators showed satisfying performance in 2009.

The number of customers increased by 2.1 percent to 795,149 from the previous year. Palyja's non-revenue water (NRW), or water loss, reached 43.9 percent, a decrease of 1.4 percent, while Aetra's NRW reached 48.6 percent, a decline of 2.1 percent.

The report said the two operator sold 267.4 million cubic meters of water in 2009, an increase of 3.2 percent from 2008.

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