Floods carried mud into the Bendung Curug dam, West Java, contaminating and disrupting much of Jakarta’s tap water supply: say a water firm official.
Yosua L. Tobing, spokesman of PT Aetra Air Jakarta that manages water supply for the eastern part of the city, said water supply in some areas would stop or flow with very little pressure for about a week while awaiting the results of dredging at the dam by state-owned water supply firm Perum Jasa Tirta II.
“Our company directors went to Bendung Curug today to see how things are going at the dam. They were told that the dredging will probably finish after a week,” Yosua told The Jakarta Post over on Wednesday.
He said his company would send a manager to the location every day to push for the rapid and effective completion of the dredging project.
“We are very sorry for this inconvenience. This raw water supply issue is beyond our control,” he said.
Yosua said consumers would receive muddy tap water during the dredging process as the small flow of raw water flowing from Bendung Curug to the West Tarum river, also known as the Kalimalang, would get mixed up with the bigger flow from the highly contaminated water from the Bekasi river.
He said the total production of water in the Aetra area dropped by 25 percent from the usual 8,700 liters per second because their water installations in Buaran and Pulogadung, East Jakarta, completely depended on raw water supply from Kalimalang.
“All of our customers will be evenly affected by the decrease in our water production,” he said, adding that Aetra water supplies currently served 382,000 Jakarta tap connections.
The company, Yosua said, had prepared a number of water tankers to provide clean water for customers whose areas were badly affected by this problem.
Herawati Prasetyo, deputy president director at PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) that manages water supply for the western part of Jakarta, said around 40 percent of the company’s 412,000 connections would be affected by the disruption of raw water supply.
“We will optimize our production facility to help supply clean water to the affected area,” she said in a statement made available to the Post.
The tap water supply operated by Palyja has stopped in at least 38 sub-districts, while another 43 still have little or almost no supply.
The subdistricts that have experienced temporary termination of supply include Tomang, Grogol, Jembatan Lima, Tambora, Kebon Jeruk and Glodok in West Jakarta.
The subdistricts that are receiving only a small amount of tap water in Palyja’s area include Karet Tengsin, Karet Semanggi, Bendungan Hilir , Gambir, Palmerah and Slipi in Central Jakarta.
This also affects Pluit and Teluk Gong subdistricts in North Jakarta.
Endang Mawardi, a resident of community unit No. 6 in Karet Tengsin subdistricts in Central Jakarta, said the area had suffered a tap water crisis for three days.
“The water only flowed at 2 a.m. and it was so dirty that we have had to shake the water for a while before it became cleaner,” she said, adding that the water stopped flowing completely at around 5 a.m.
She said she did not cook or wash clothes during the three days as the water was kept for bathing only.
“Last night, my husband tried to wash our clothes when the water was flowing, but suddenly it stopped flowing, right when he tried to rinse them,” she said.
Tatik Zen, another resident, said she was forced to ask for a pail of water from neighbors who had a water pump during praying time in the afternoon, as she noticed that her water supply had stopped and there was no water in her tap.
