High time for households to treat wastewater on the lot

Anissa S. Febrina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The argument of water resources is a big issue these days. Everybody talks of the water shortage in the city and, similarly, of the floods that destroy homes.

"Last week I had to buy 10 jerricans of clean water a day since barely a trickle came from the tap, said Arijaty Azhari, a 53-year-old mother of four who lives in Roxy, Central Jakarta.

"And last night, since it had been raining all day, my living room was covered with water," she said.

It would be easy to channel her anger to the city water operators and the environmental agency for water management failures, but experts say it is high time for residents, as well as businesses, to take responsibility.

"Individual households can start with two things, building a simple rainwater reservoir and constructing a small water treatment plant," said water management expert Nusa Idaman Said, who is also a researcher at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT).

The combination of individual, communal and regional treatment plants would help secure the city's water supply as the plants would reduce the water pollution level, making it possible for river water to be further processed.

Currently, according to Nusa, city water operator PT PAM Jaya and its foreign partners PT Thames PAM Jaya and PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya only supply some 8,000 cubic meter of water per second, or 30 percent of the water needs of Jakartans.

The estimation is based on the company's report that it produces 15,000 cubic meter of water per second, of which 50 percent fails to reach customers due to theft and leakages.

Some 80 percent of the company's water supply comes from Jatiluhur dam in West Java, another 15 percent from Tangerang water utility PDAM Tirta Kertarahardja (PDAM TKR), and only 5 percent from the Ciliwung River, which runs through the city.

The company blames Jakarta's most recent water crisis on Jatiluhur dam drying up, which caused its tap water production to drop to 65 percent.

"The rivers running through the city have great potential as a source of water. the problem is they are too polluted to be treated," Nusa said.

We should first look at our own behavior before blaming industries and those living along the riverbanks.

Think of the soap, shampoo and detergents entering drains, where it may flow untreated into the rivers.

While the role of industries cannot be denied, households contribute some 75 percent of water pollution, a study on Jakarta's wastewater and drainage systems reveals.

As urban families are becoming more dependent on soluble chemical products, nature can no longer filter the water for us.

Realizing the paramount role of water, the city administration issued earlier in 2005 a bylaw requiring households, as well as businesses, to build wastewater treatment plants.

For households in densely populated areas, communal plants are recommended, while those in less crowded areas can install their own septic systems.

"The system is as simple as building a septic tank and the cost depends on the materials," Nusa said.

A simple septic tank costs about Rp 1 million.

BPPT itself has developed Biotreat-10, a biofilter system that uses anaerob and aerob tanks in which wastewater is filtered using microbacteria.

The system can reduce biological oxygen demand level -- a parameter for estimating the concentration of organic pollutants in water -- by 90 percent.

The technology is there. Now, money is all that is needed.

"Since it requires an investment, it is better for the administration to aim first at middle- to upper-class households. The houses in Menteng and Pondok Indah for example," he said.

It is probably more difficult to change the paradigm that one has to set aside a certain amount of money to help nature filter the water than to get donors to help build treatment plants in poor districts.

Surprisingly this time, dealing with businesses, especially newly built housing estates and apartments, is easier since it makes more sense for them to invest in a wastewater treatment plant.

Large-scale housing estates like Lippo Karawaci and those built by the Ciputra group already operate their own treatment plants, although the processed water is only used for the upkeep of green spaces.

Lippo Karawaci, for example, treats its wastewater and uses it to water its golf course and gardens.

Ciputra too has taken water processing into its own hands to secure supply for the residents of its housing estates like Citra Garden in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, Citra Gran in Cibubur, East Jakarta, and Citra Raya in Tangerang.

"We receive the supply from the nearest river and treat it in our own plants before distributing it to households," Ciputra group director Harun Hajadi said.

"We also treat some of the wastewater collected from houses, but only a small percentage," he said, adding that the plants cost around 20 percent of the total investment for each housing estate.

Apartments and office buildings have also built water treatment plants, although on a scale that is sometimes too small to cover their water needs.

But still it is better than nothing.

"All water management efforts must run parallel. The city must improve large-scale water infrastructure, businesses must comply and build proper plants and households must also start taking responsibility," Nusa said.