T

he two tap water operators that serve Jakarta, PT PAM Lyonaise Jaya (Palyja) and PT Aetra Air Jakarta (Aetra), have announced they have completed major improvements to their infrastructure since they were established in 1998, claiming improved water quality, coverage and pressure.

Palyja, which serves the west side of Jakarta, says it has built 1,200 kilometers of new pipes and restored 850 kilometers of its existing 5,200 kilometers of pipes at a total cost of Rp 1.35 trillion (US$151.2 million) since 1998.

Palyja public relations manager Meyritha Maryanie said a further 3,000 kilometers of pipes needed to be restored.

The company booked a net profit of Rp 222 billion last year, up from Rp 136 billion in 2008.

“We realize that under such conditions, we won’t be able to supply enough water for the areas on the west side of the city but we have done what we can, especially amid a lack of water resources and also a lack of awareness among residents,” Meyritha told The Jakarta Post.

She said that her company drew the majority of its water from the Jatiluhur resevoir in West Java and another reservoir in Tangerang.

“We are planning to use water from the Pesanggrahan river as it often overflows during the rainy season. However we are still checking the quality of the water and negotiating with the authorities,” she said.

Palyja and Aetra have held the exclusive rights to manage the city’s tap water since 1998.

Aetra, then PT Thames PAM Jaya, has built 1,451 kilometers of new pipes to add to the 4,400 kilometers of pipes that it already had. Aetra serves residents on the east side of Jakarta.

Aetra general manager Agit Pratomo said the company was focused on allocating more money to expand its pipe network and build new pumps to increase water pressure this year.

“We understand that many of our customers have complained about our supply so we are allocating
Rp 300 billion to build 232 kilometers of pipes and two pressure pumps,” he said.

He said his company usually only spent an average of about Rp 120 billion per year on infrastructure
upgrades.

“We hope that private companies will become more aware of the need to use tap water in accordance with the 2007 bylaw,” he added, refering to a bylaw that stipulates that commercial and industrial buildings that tap into the ground water must pay taxes that are more costly than paying for tap water.

The companies do not produce enough tap water to meet demand. They are running at an estimated combined defecit of 4,000 liters of water per second this year, based on the assumption that the population of the city is growing at a rate of up to 0.3 percent per year.

In fact, the Jakarta Statistics Agency (BPS) recently announced that the population growth had reached 1.3 percent per year.

Earlier, experts said that almost all commercial buildings in the city used groundwater because of the lack in supply and coverage of tap water in the city. (rch)