The Pontianak administration, supported by a Dutch water company, is preparing to normalize the Jawi River, which flows throughout the city. The program will be proposed to the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry, which will implement it as part of the government'€™s reservoir construction program.

Partnering with Oasen, the Pontianak administration has carried out a feasibility study on raw water reserves for municipal tap water company PDAM Tirta Khatulistiwa over the last four months. Results of the research conducted by two students from Wageningen University in the Netherlands revealed that it would be possible for the company to use the tributary as a raw water source during the dry season.

Pontianak Mayor Sutarmidji said follow-up research would soon be carried out because the survey covered a stretch of only six kilometers of the 20 kilometer-long river. The river, which is on average 18 meters wide and 2.5 meters deep, extends from Pontianak to Kubu Raya regency.

Sutarmidji said that if the entire river could be normalized, it would be possible for the administration to install four floodgates.

'€œI will compose a detailed plan and submit it to the public works ministry in Jakarta,'€ the mayor said recently. He said the Jawi River normalization plan was in line with the government'€™s reservoir construction program.

The Jawi River has long been used as a disposal site for domestic waste. A number of illegal bridges are scattered along the river. The Pontianak administration has demolished some of the bridges, which were set up by local residents to cross the river.

Oasen customer and overseas director Jeroen Schmaal said some of the main tasks the Pontianak administration and Oasen still had to carry out were conducting follow-up research, digging and building a dam on the river.

'€œThe result of the pre-research was that it is possible to build a reservoir on the Jawi River. But after this, we still have to do proper research. We need two or three more years at least. But if you look back, we have established this cooperation with Pontianak over 10 years. So, three years is not very long,'€ said Schmaal.

Until now, PDAM Tirta Khatulistiwa has depended on the Kapuas River, Indonesia'€™s longest river, which stretches 1,143 kilometers, as its raw water source. In the dry season, however, sea water intrusion has caused the river water to become '€œsalty'€.

PDAM Tirta Khatulistiwa engineering director Lajito said the company'€™s water supply capacity had declined by 100 liters per second, but added that in April, it would receive and install a water pump with capacity of 300 liters per second from the government.

'€œCurrently, PDAM'€™s water supply capacity stands at 1,450 liters per second. With the new equipment, the capacity will increase to 1,750 liters per second in April,'€ said Lajito.

PDAM Tirta Khatulistiwa has more than 90,000 customers at present, almost 80 percent of which are households in Pontianak. The Pontianak administration and Oasen have cooperated since 2003 and their partnership has managed to push down PDAM Tirta Khatulistiwa'€™s water supply leakage to below 30 percent. (ebf)

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