T

he dry season affecting the capital city and its surrounding areas has forced Greater Jakarta’s residents into a crisis of clean water from both ground and purification plant sources, as well as in gallons.

Fazri Abdullah, a 20-year-old resident of Batu Ceper in Tangerang, Banten, said on Wednesday that he had been suffering from a scarcity of ground water for a month. “Sometimes the groundwater flows, albeit weakly. But mostly it doesn’t come out at all, like today,” Fazri said.

“Last year, the water remained running although the flow was weak during the dry season. This year, however, is much worse than last year.”

Likewise, Liana Dian Sari, 25, who lives in Jombang, South Tangerang, said that such severe water scarcities were unprecedented.

“For five days we’ve not had a single drop of water from the faucet,” she said. “Prior to that, the water flow was gradually weakening for two months. If I opened more than one faucet, the water would stop running.”

While some are suffering from a lack of ground and tap water, others are having difficulties in getting drinking water gallons.

Wardha Lativiana, 25, said that the kiosks and convenience stores around her rented home in Kemanggisan, West Jakarta, had ran out of drinking water in gallons since Sunday.

“On Sunday, I was walking past a nearby kiosk that was still selling drinking water in gallons,” she said. “When I went back to the kiosk later, it had sold out all of its drinking water.”

According to Wardha, since two weeks ago the price of drinking water at stores around her home had increased from Rp 12,000 (US$1.25) a gallon to Rp 15,000. Now the stores had no more stock.

“Now I have to boil tap water for drinking. It’s a hassle but it’s still better than buying bottled drinking water, which is way too expensive,” she said.

Arisyi Fariza Raz, 24, a resident of Gandaria, South Jakarta, meanwhile, said that he could no longer buy drinking water in gallons at a shop in Blok M, South Jakarta. “All drinking water in gallons is sold out. The shop has never run out of water before,” he said.

According to the chief of the Indonesian Association of Bottled Drinking Water Companies (Aspadin) Hendro Baroeno, the scarcity of drinking water in gallons may have been caused by the prolonged drought, causing drinking water consumption to rise.

Jakartans normally buy drinking water only for drinking. But now some buy it for taking a bath and washing clothes due to the crisis of tap and groundwater.

Stephanie Tay, 24, said that she had to buy a large amount of drinking water for bathing and dish-washing because the tap water at her house in the affluent Citra Garden residential area in Kali Deres, West Jakarta, had not run since early September.

Kristanto Linarta, 59, the owner of the Cahaya Aqua water shop in Sunter, North Jakarta, acknowledged that the demand for both refilled drinking water and water in gallons had been increasing since early September.

“I can sell a lot more gallons of drinking water than usual. I used to sell drinking water to restaurants and households only. But now, other sellers also want to buy from me,” he said. “People also buy a lot more refill drinking water than before because there is no running tap water in their houses.”

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) predicts the drought will end in November for Central Tangerang, Central Jakarta, West Jakarta, the northern part of South Jakarta and the western part of East Jakarta.

The drought in North Tangerang, North and East Jakarta, will end in December, according to the agency. (han)