Water woes for Jakarta as dry spell persists

JAKARTA - A PROLONGED dry spell in Jakarta is leaving the city authorities hard-pressed to maintain normal water supplies.

The city's water company PAM Jaya has turned on all 17 of its water pumps - it normally operates 11 - to maintain normal production.

Water tankers are also doing the rounds in areas where supplies have been disrupted for the past 10 days, said the company's top official, Mr Haryadi Priyohutomo.

And in a cruel twist, Indonesian scientists predicted this week that rains may arrive by the end of the month and trigger floods in the capital.

Dry weather has caused water levels to fall from 105m to below 85m in the Jatiluhur dam, an important source of water for Jakarta. Consequently, several parts of the Indonesian capital, mainly the northern, central and eastern areas, have been experiencing water shortages.

January is usually a rainy month and meteorologists had predicted higher-than-normal rainfall for this month. But they revised their forecast last week after temperatures in Jakarta and the outlying areas soared to 36 deg C.

The weathermen warned that a drought could hit the city, evoking memories of the severe droughts of 1997 that caused serious crop failures and major forest fires.

Currently, about one-fifth or 192,000 of the 720,000 customers of PAM Jaya and its two foreign partners face water supply disruptions. Although the company has turned on all its water pumps, it warned that shortages may be unavoidable.

Mr Haryadi said the company was planning to obtain more water from Cirata dam, which is located near Jatiluhur dam.

Water shortage has been compounded by the irrigation needs of farmland on the outskirts of the capital. Farms that lie between the Tarum Barat river and the Bekasi river are known to draw water from the Jatiluhur dam.

A resident at the housing estate of Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta told the Jakarta Post that the flow of water from her tap has been erratic for the past week.

'The tap water in my house doesn't flow well, especially between 6am and 8am,' said Ms Sarah, who pays 130,000 rupiah (S$22) a month to PAM Jaya.

Meanwhile, a team of scientists from the Bandung Institute of Technology said that average rainfall of 16mm an hour is expected at the end of the month.

But it would hardly be a blessing, they added. 'We are particularly worried about the ability of the soil to absorb run-off water. If the rain continues for more than two hours, a number of areas will be flooded,' said Mr The Houw Liong, one of the scientists.