Jakarta May Face Clean Water Crisis by 2025 if Not Acted Upon Now
Lately, concerns have arisen that Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, and its immediate surroundings are threatened to experience a clean water crisis by 2025. Clean water, which is produced by two private operators - PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) and Aetra Air Jakarta - currently totals 18.7 m3 per second. However, by 2025, demand for clean water will reach 41.3 m3/second as the population of Jakarta is estimated to grow to 14.6 million people from 9.6 million currently (the unofficial figure is possibly much higher).
Firdaus Ali, a water management expert at the University of Indonesia, said that it is high time for the local Jakarta government to enhance water governance to offset a potential future crisis. He also advised the Jakarta government to speed up acquisition of Palyja as water resources, which are related to the lives of the public, should be handled by the local administration. It has been reported that city-owned property developer Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro) and city-owned developer Pembangunan Jaya will acquire a combined 100 percent stake in Palyja. If the Jakarta administration has a direct stake in the city water operators, it will increase public supervision on the local clean water industry.
PAM Lyonnaise Jaya, which manages the clean water supply in the west side of Jakarta, is a private water operator that is partly controlled by Astra International through its subsidiary Astratel Nusantara. Palyja has been active in Jakarta for about 16 years. However, last year a law suit was filed demanding that the court will annul the agreement between city water operator PAM Jaya and Palyja and Aetra Air Jakarta (Aetra) claiming that public access to affordable clean water has been hindered.
Based on information from the World Bank, Indonesia plans to achieve universal clean water access by 2019 but almost half of the population still do not have access to clean water at present. Indonesia's total population is estimated at 245 million people.
