Pam Jaya To Mange Four Rivers To Tackle Dry Season

Jakarta, Oct 3 (Antara) - The water supply operator PT PAM Jaya will manage four rivers in West Jakarta to overcome the shortage of clean water during the dry season this year, stated its President Director Sri Widayanto Kaderi. "We will manage these four rivers in our effort to supply clean water to the public during the dry season," he noted here on Friday According to him, raw water stock continues to decline, and thus, strategic efforts would be taken to address the lack of clean water supply from the rivers. "The water in the rivers is very dirty, and so, we are waiting from the normalization process from the provincial government before managing them," he noted. He remarked that the protracted spell of drought has resulted in clean water crisis in numerous parts of Jakarta and elsewhere. According to National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, 20 provinces in Indonesia have been affected by the drought due to the current dry season and low rainfall. In order to deal with the situation, the BNPB has allocated Rp50 billion for relief operations in the regions affected by drought, including providing water tanks and pumps as short-term measures, he recently remarked here. As of now, the provinces that have received aid include West, Central, and East Java; Yogyakarta; West and East Nusa Tenggara; South Sumatra; and Southeast Sulawesi. Sutopo stated that in Java, Bali, and Nusa Tenggara, the situation has been worsened by the deficit in water supply due to the drought, which has been occurring since 1995. "In 2000, the water requirement in Java had reached 83 million cubic meters per year, but the region could only provide around 30 million cubic meters, which is certainly insufficient," he noted. As a long-term measure to handle the situation, Sutopo stated that the BNPB has appealed to the government to take necessary steps to improve dams and the flow of rivers along with implementing programs for land and water conservation.