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ncertainty following a Supreme Court ruling that ordered an end to private-sector involvement in Jakarta’s water supply has increased after city-owned water company PAM Jaya sent a legal opinion to the city administration regarding the ruling.

In its legal opinion, submitted in October, PAM Jaya director Erlan Hidayat Erlan, who was recently appointed as the new head of the Indonesian Tap Water Companies Association (PERPAMSI), said his company believed it had the right to cooperate with private companies in managing the city’s water supply.

In its October ruling, the Supreme Court had decided in favor of a lawsuit brought by the Coalition of Jakarta Residents Opposing Water Privatization (KMMSAJ), after finding that two private firms, PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) and PT Aetra Air Jakarta (Aetra), were providing inadequate services to residents of the city of 10 million people.

The Supreme Court noted that the capital’s water management had to comply with Jakarta Bylaw No. 13/1992 on PAM Jaya, hence PAM Jaya should be the sole party responsible for managing the capital’s tap water supply.

In reference to the Supreme Court’s ruling, Erlan said there were articles in the Bylaw that allowed the company to work with third parties.

“When the Supreme Court ordered us to follow bylaw No. 13/1992, we looked at the regulation and found that the article allows PAM Jaya to cooperate with the private sector. So, it can be concluded that the Supreme Court’s ruling strengthens the current cooperation,” he told journalists recently.

Article 43 of the bylaw stipulates that PAM Jaya may cooperate with third parties in developing its services for water production and water distribution in the city.

He went on to say that his party was currently waiting for a legal opinion from the Jakarta Prosecutors Office regarding the court ruling. The legal opinion was expected to be released in the coming weeks.

“I hope the opinion [of the prosecutors office] is in line with ours. Should the result be different, that would confuse me,” he said.

The cooperation between PAM Jaya and the two private water companies began in 1997 with an agreement granting Palyja and Aetra the right to produce and distribute clean water in the capital.

Under the deal, Palyja controls the supply of tap water in the western part of the capital, while Aetra — then named Thames Pam Jaya (TPJ) — controls the east. The partnership was expected to end in 2023.

At the beginning of its partnership with the two companies, PAM Jaya was connected to 201,000 homes in the western part of Jakarta and 268,000 in the eastern part. By last year, those figures had grown to 404,000 and 426,000, respectively, or only 60 percent of the population in the respective areas. .

Separately, Matthew Michelle Lenggu, a lawyer of the coalition, said it was true that the bylaw allowed PAM Jaya to cooperate with private companies. However, Matthew said there were five requirements regarding water management by private companies, based on a Constitutional Court ruling in 2013.

“The first one is that the water business must not [disregard] residents’ rights. Second, the state must fulfill residents’ right of access to water as one of the basic human rights. Third, water management must take into consideration environmental sustainability,” Matthew told The Jakarta Post.

“Fourth, the state must handle the water management. The last [requirement] is that the water management right belongs to the state, so the water business must be handled by state-owned enterprises or city-owned enterprises. So, there are still limitations [regarding water management], even if it follows the Bylaw No. 13/1992,” he added.