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Jakarta struggles as climate change disrupts water balance
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Water vendors fill the blue plastic jerry cans with tap water from city company pipes in a neighborhood just outside of Muara Angke passenger port, in the coastal municipality of North Jakarta on Aug. 6 . Each can contains up to 20 liters of water to be sold for at least Rp 5,000 (US$ 0.34). (JP/A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil)
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akartans — especially those living in areas unreached by the city’s pipe network — are still struggling to access clean potable water as scientists predict that climate change will disrupt water balance and a harsher El Niño can potentially spell problems for the city’s water resources.
With Jakarta’s pipe network managed by the city-owned PAM Jaya only covering 64 percent of the city, several areas have to contend with using groundwater and even buy water delivered in blue plastic barrels.
Muhadi, 43, the head of neighborhood unit (RT) 10 in Pluit, Penjaringan, North Jakarta near the Muara Angke Passenger Port, is among those whose area has not been reached by piping access from PAM Jaya.
For his household, Muhadi relies on groundwater pumped from a nearby well, occasionally buying blue plastic jerry cans of water from wandering carts. Every day, he has to buy around five to six 20-liter cans of water, priced at minimum Rp 5,000 (US$0.34) each.
Muhadi said that some households would need as many as 15 cans if they are a large household or if they run a small business like a warteg (rice and side dishes stall).
“Some people also dig shallow wells, but the water is often dirty,” Muhadi said early this month.
Several houses in Muara Angke have wells less than two meters deep. Because the neighborhood is near the coast and does not have a proper sewage system, wastewater often seeps into the ground and back into the wells.
