Jakarta’s tap water is drying up
Residents of Pegadungan village, Kalideres district in Indonesia’s West Jakarta, are taking extra measures to obtain water as the drought continues to plague Jakarta.
Desy, 50, who lives in community unit (RW ) 09 in Pegadungan, said she had stayed up late every night for the last two months to fill up water tubs in her house.
“Since the dry season started two months ago, the city’s tap water service has been available only from 1am to 3am I stay up late to fill all the water containers in the house, otherwise my family would have to do without water the entire day,” she told the Jakarta Post on Monday, adding that water pressure in her house had been low since the beginning of the year.
Ingho, 43, who lives in Palm Paradise housing complex in Pegadungan, also in West Jakarta, said his area had no running water as piped water services to the housing complex had stopped two months, forcing the complex management to buy water from water trucks.
“The price of water in our housing complex increased fivefold after the management started buying water from water trucks. We usually pay 8,000 rupiah [$0.57] to 9,000 rupiah [$0.63] per cubic metre of water, but these days we pay 15,000 rupiah,” Ingho said.
He explained that his family could use up to 25 cubic meters of water per month, costing about 1.2 million rupiah a month for water.
“Even though my neighbours and I have complained about the expensive water service, we have no choice but to pay for it because water is a basic need. My family is doing its best to save water, such as by sending our dirty clothes to a laundry instead of washing it at home,” he said.
Another resident of RW 09, Tursin, said the prolonged dry season had dried up the nearby river and wells, forcing him to buy additional water from water vendors.
For years, Tursin has bought water from vendors because his home is not connected to the city’s tap water service. To save money, he normally sources water from a nearby well even though the groundwater in the area tastes salty.
“All the people in my RT [neighbourhood unit] buy containers of water because we aren’t connected to the city’s tap water service and the water in our wells tastes salty. My family uses the water from vendors to cook and the water from the well to bathe,” he told the Jakarta Post.
Tursin also resorts to using murky water from a nearby river to do the laundry, since the groundwater turns their clothes yellow and makes the colour fade.
“Since the river water is black, I mix it with alum before using it to do the laundry,” he said.
The drought has made his situation more complicated as the river and the wells started drying up three months ago. Tursin said he now had to buy three times more water from vendors to meet his family’s daily needs.
“I used to buy two containers of water, each containing 20L, a day for my family. But now I have to buy six. One container of water costs 2,500 rupiah but it can increase to 10,000 rupiah if supplies are low,” Tursin said.
The head of RW 09, Abdul Rozak Jakaria, said he had asked the city administration to supply water to deal with water shortages in the area.
“A ago the city administration, through city-owned water company PT PAM Jaya, started sending two water trucks, each carrying 2,000L of water, to our community unit every day. It’s not enough to cover all residents’ needs, but it helps,” he told the Post on Monday.
Abdul said five neighbourhood units and about 1,000 families living there were currently not connected to the city’s tap water service.
He said years after applying for the service, the community units would finally get to enjoy tap water in December as the city-owned water company had promised to install water pipes in the neighbourhoods this month.
“Since RW 09 consists mainly of low-income families, it is quite hard for them to continually buy water from vendors, especially since the price surges during the dry season. It breaks my heart to see them use polluted river water simply because they can’t afford to buy water from vendors. Hopefully after the water pipes are installed, residents will have access to clean and cheap water,” he said.
Abdul said his community unit was feeling the effects of the drought more than other community units in Pegadungan village. “Even residents who have access to tap water can only get water in the middle of the night. And the water isn’t very clean either.”
Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has said 15 districts in the capital city are expected to experience the drought.