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City to build water pipeline from Jatiluhur dam
The Jakarta administration plans to build a pipeline connecting the Jatiluhur dam in Purwakarta, West Java, to a water treatment facility in Buaran, East Jakarta, next year to ensure the supply of tap water
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T
he Jakarta administration plans to build a pipeline connecting the Jatiluhur dam in Purwakarta, West Java, to a water treatment facility in Buaran, East Jakarta, next year to ensure the supply of tap water.
"We plan to process the raw water in Jatiluhur reservoir and channel the processed water through a pipe directly to *water operators in* Jakarta, Bekasi and Karawang. The water operators will then distribute the water to customers," Governor Fauzi Bowo said Wednesday.
He said he would discuss the project with the Public Works Ministry this week to work out the financial costs, which were expected to be shouldered by the city administration, the central government and private parties.
"The total investment is estimated at Rp 3 trillion *US$312.5 million*. We hope the feasibility study will be completed by the middle of 2010 and the project can start by 2011," he said.
Fauzi said the current raw water supply from Jatiluhur was contaminated by domestic and industrial pollution from the Tarum Barat canal before reaching the water treatment facility.
Sri Widayanto, a technical director at the city-owned tap water company PAM Jaya, said the city faced increased competition for water from farmers along the canal who use it for irrigation.
"When the farmers plant rice during the dry season, our supply of raw water is reduced," he said.
Meanwhile, Firdaus Ali, a member of the Jakarta Water Regulatory Body (BR PAM), said the pipeline project would incorporate 1.5 meter-diameter parallel pipes stretching 72 kilometers which would be laid alongside the Tarum Barat canal.
"We plan to complete the construction of the pipeline by 2013," he said.
The project would require the acquisition of a strip of land 10 kilometers long from Jatiluhur to Curug and the renting of a strip of land 62 kilometers long to Buaran, he added.
"We plan to rent the land along the Tarum Barat canal from Perum Jasa Tirta 2," Firdaus said.
He said the new water treatment plant in Buaran will process some 5,000 liters of water per second, of which 1,000 liters will be distributed to Bekasi and Karawang.
He said currently, the city gets 16,000 liters of water per second from the reservoir.
Sarwo Handayani, the assistant governor for development and the environment, said the pipeline would channel potable water for customers, so the water operators should not mix it with clean water processed in other plants.
"Later in 2013, all tap water in the city will be expected to be potable," she said.
According to the Jakarta Water Regulatory Body (BR PAM), the city's tap water operators, PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) and PT Aetra Air Jakarta, currently only supply clean water for 60 percent of Jakarta residents. Forty percent of the population relies on groundwater because of the limited coverage of the pipeline network.
In June this year, the administration increased the groundwater tax by between 6 and 16 times, depending on the tax payers' categories, in order to curb the extraction of groundwater and encourage the use of tap water. Excessive groundwater extraction has been blamed for causing land subsidence in several parts of the city.
