The Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Ministry has also been involved as a mediating party in the prolonged dispute.

In a closed meeting held in Bogor municipality on Monday morning, representatives of the ministry gathered together all the parties of the dispute, namely representatives from the Sentul City developer, the Bogor regency administration and the 7,000 residents. “The government received many letters regarding the dispute. We are here to mediate the conflicting parties,” Abeto Harahap, the ministry’s representative from its law enforcement coordination office, said after the meeting.

The dispute is centered on the management of tap water supply by the 3-hectare complex’s developer, PT Sentul City Tbk. The residents, grouped under the Sentul City Residents Committee (KWSC), had been demanding for the past several years that the company, through its subsidiary PT Sukaputra Graha Cemerlang (SGC), hand over their water infrastructure to the regional-owned water operator, PDAM Tirta Kahuripan.

The dispute had eventually ended up in the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the KWSC.

KWSC secretary Aswil Asrol said their protest was based on the price of water, which they claimed was higher than what the PDAM charged. He said, as an example, that when the PDAM charged Rp 4,300 (30 US cents) per cubic meter for water supplied to luxury residences, the SGC charged the residents Rp 7,200 per cubic meter.

Months of conflicts and legal proceedings, which were also supported by recommendations from the Jakarta Ombudsman, resulted in two rulings by the Supreme Court last year for interim measures to be implemented until the SGC sells the Sentul City water treatment plant and the water pipes to PDAM.

The rulings stipulated that the Bogor regent should withdraw the permit granted to the company to manage its own water treatment facility. The rulings also said that the company no longer had the right to collect water bill payments from the residents. “It’s already more than 60 days since the court made the rulings. It means they are supposed to be automatically in place,” Aswil said.

Aswil accused the Sentul City developer of illegally selling tap water to residents. He also claimed that the residents are still paying their water bills to the company under threat that the company could cut off their water supply if they refuse.

A resident of Sentul City and a lawyer for the KWSC, Gita Paulina, said the group wanted a clear follow-up of the ruling since the legal proceedings had ended.

“We expect nothing but that the government make sure that Sentul City and the Bogor administration do their jobs. No meetings could change what the court had handed down,” she said.

Sentul City spokesman Alfian Munjani said the company would respect the court’s ruling.

However, he called on the government to respect the company’s authority as the developer has its own “township” concept by which it would manage the residential compound and all facilities, including for tap water.

“If we are to hand over our assets [to PDAM], then it would no longer be township management,” he said.

He explained that in a township concept, the developer has the authority to manage its own water treatment facility as part of the services to its customers. Such a concept has been widely implemented in luxury residential areas developed by others in the Greater Jakarta area.

Alfian said that the company had mentioned in the conditional sales and purchase agreements (PPJB) that tap water would be managed by the SGC, along with security, public facility maintenance and waste management.

“They [the KWSC] must have read it when they signed the PPJB when they bought their houses,” he added.

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