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AKARTA: Considering the highly polluted state water is in when it reaches the treatment plant in Kalimalang, East Jakarta, Jakarta administration is planning to build a water purification plant at Jatiluhur reservoir in West Java and pipe clean water to city residents directly.

“I have asked [the administration] to accelerate the feasibility study for this project so we can improve Jakarta’s water supply within two or three years,” Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said Monday.

Jakarta’s clean water supply depends on a water treatment plant in Kalimalang, which treats water from Jatiluhur reservoir. Unfortunately, however, the quality of water the Kalimalang plant produces is often low because of the highly polluted water it treats.

“We think the best solution is to build a water treatment plant upstream so the raw water does not have to flow through industrial and residential areas,” Fauzi said.

He added that the clean water from the Jatiluhur treatment plant would be distributed to Jakarta using 70-kilometer underground pipeline. — JP