City to build water pipeline from Jatiluhur dam

Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 11/04/2009 9:06 PM

The Jakarta Administration plans to build a pipeline connecting the Jatiluhur dam in Purwakarta, West Java, to one of the city’s water treatment facilities in Buaran, East Jakarta next year.

“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, central government and private parties.

“The total investment is estimated to be about Rp 3 trillion. We hope the feasibility study will be completed by the middle of 2010 and the project can start by 2011,” he said.

The decision to build the pipeline was taken in part because of problems including increased pollution of raw water supplied to the city, expected higher demand for tap water, and increased competition for water for irrigation.

Fauzi said the raw water supply from Jatiluhur, had been contaminated by domestic and industrial pollution from the Tarum Barat canal, which brought the water to the city.

He said the recent increase in ground water tax would push some customers to switch to tap water, which would force the city to increase tap water supply.

This June he issued a gubernatorial decree on the new tax rate for groundwater, which ranged from six to 16 times the current tax rate, depending on the tax payers’ category, which included non-business entities as well as small and large businesses.

The policy aims to prevent further land subsidence in the city due to excessive groundwater extraction. According to data from the Jakarta Water Regulatory Body (BR PAM), the city could only fulfill 60 percent of the residents’ clean water needs. The remaining 40 percent is fulfilled by groundwater supply.