Jakarta, March 23 (Antara) - Indonesia's capital city Jakarta, which
has experienced water crisis for about 18 years, will face shortage of
water supply by about 19,000 liters per second in 2020.
Now, Jakarta residents need about 26,938 liters of water per second but
supply only reaches about 17,700 liters per second, according to
hydrology expert Firdaus Ali of the University of Indonesia.
Other residents who have no access to clean water supply are forced to
exploit groundwater. This adds further burden to the land in the city
after it suffers losses of groundwater sucked by industries, causing
land subsidence.
Reports have it that Jakarta land surface has been sinking up 10
centimeters per year, bringing threats of infrastructure and building
damage.
Although attempts to meet water need in the city, shortage of supply
still remains. "Jakarta has been experiencing water crisis for a long
time. Exactly, it has been since 18 years ago," said Firdaus in Jakarta
on Friday.
He said that Jakarta badly needed adequate water supply with every
adult resident requires water consumption of 184 liters per day.
According to AMRTA Institute for Water Literacy in its
http://www.amrta-institute online, piped-water service in Jakarta is not
adequate enough to serve all population.
It makes vast majority of Jakarta citizens rely on ground water for
daily consumption that prompts ground water extraction in large amount.
In 2008, when some parts of the buildings of the Assessment and
Application of Technology (BPPT), Sarinah, and Executive Tower subsided,
experts had warned that it happened because of dewatering process or
careless ground water depletion in large amount, and the high pressure
on ground surface caused by skyscrapers construction.
Official data from Tax Service Department indicates that ground water
use for commercial purpose is 22 million cubic meter per year. Usually
commercial use is 30 percent from domestic use.
Thus, rough calculation for ground water use in Jakarta is 73 million cubic meter each year.
Calculation based on 9 million population, average of need to water,
and service capacity of PT Palyja and PT Aetra, however, minimum number
of ground water use is 270 million cubic meter per year, much higher
than safe harvesting threshold, which is 60 million cubic meter per
year.
"It is predicted that in 2015 Jakarta will have a water deficit of
23,720 liters per second," Indonesia Water Institute Chairman Firdaus
Ali said recently.
He added that the Jakarta city government should immediately look for
new water resources, since it is only able to supply 2.2 percent of the
clean water demands of local residents.
Meanwhile, the Vice President Director of drinking water company PT PAM
Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja), Herawati Prasetyo, said the demand for clean
water in Jakarta would continue to increase.
"Most of the clean water supply in Jakarta comes from its satellite
towns of Bogor, Tangerang, Bekasi and Depok," she said, adding that the
local government should try to develop new water resources and
infrastructures.
Palyja, one of the operators of Jakarta's city-owned water company (PAM
Jaya), is doing its best to cut the city's non-revenue water (NRW)
rate in an effort to reduce shortage of water supply.
"We have been able to lower the non-revenue water level in the city in
the last several years. This year we will do our best to lower it
further so that the NRW rate this year would be smaller than that in the
previous years," Herawaty Prasetyo said.
Based on Palyja's data, the non-revenue water rate in 2010 showed a decline from 43.9 percent in 2009 to 42.3 percent.
She said that her company also succeeded in lowering the non-revenue
water rate in 2011 to 39 percent and to 37.98 percent in 2012.
"Therefore this year, we have set ourselves a target of lowering
further the non-revenue water rate by about one percent or to 36.7
percent. We are optimistic that we can achieve the target at the end of
the year," said Herawaty.
In an effort to lower the water losses' level, Herawaty said her
company would conduct examinations to detect water leakage in the
company's pipeline networks.
"To detect the leakages, we will insert cameras into the pipes. We will
soon repair any damage to the people as soon as we detect it," she
noted.
Besides, Palyja will also replace old and damaged water gauges,
particularly those which were at the age of between 10 and 25 years so
that the results of the measurement would be accurate.
Before being processed, Jakarta receives raw water from among others the Jatiluhur Dam.
However, the quality of this water is also reported to have declined
for the high rate of its ammonia content. The PAM Jaya said the quality
of the water supply from the dam was declining due to high ammonia
content.
"The ammonia content of water supply to Jakarta has been increasing
every year. Now, it has reached the alarming level," Wibisono
Harisantoso, an expert staff for institutional relations of Pam Jaya,
said last week.
He said that the ammonia content of the water supply in 2010 was
recorded at 2.9 milligrams per liter. In the following year, it rose to
4.8 milligrams per liter.
"The ammonia content of good quality
water supply should not exceed the threshold of one milligram per
liter," Wibisono said.
He said that the high ammonia content of the water supply was caused by
contamination along the distribution process from the Jati Luhur dam to
Jakarta. "Usually the water is contaminated by wastes --both
industrial waste and domestic refuse-- discarded into the West Tarum
canal," said Wibisono.
To reduce the ammonia content of the water supply, the regional
environment management agencies of Jakarta and West Java should
coordinate to handle the waste problem.
"With
good coordination, parties which cause water contamination into the
canal could be put in order," Wibisono said.***4***
(T.A014/ )
(T.A014/A/A. Abdussalam/O. Tamindael) 23-03-2013 13:1 |
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar