Lights out for landmarks observing Earth Hour

Triwik Kurniasari, THE JAKARTA POST, JAKARTA | Fri, 03/20/2009 1:10 PM

Areas in the heart of the capital will be in darkness following the city administration's commitment to turn off its lights for an hour to raise awareness about climate change.

The Earth Hour 2009 campaign, endorsed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), will take place on March 28, from 8:30 p.m to 9:30p.m.

This will be the first time the city participates in Earth Hour.

Rizal Malik, a member of WWF-Indonesia's Board of Trustees, said Thursday that some government offices and private companies in Jakarta's main business districts had declared their commitment to Earth Hour.

The administration also plans to switch off the lights at some of the city's iconic spots in Central Jakarta, such as the National Monument, Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, City Hall, Pemuda Statue and Arjuna Wiwaha Statue.

"The event is aimed at raising people's awareness to save energy towards sustainable development," said Rizal.

"This is just the first step. We encourage people to turn off unused lights every day of the year," he said.

Jakarta will be the first city in the country to embrace Earth Hour.

Rizal said the campaign would kick off in Jakarta because the city has the highest electricity consumption in Indonesia.

"Some 20 percent of Indonesia's electricity consumers are in the capital. On the other hand, other places have to struggle to obtain adequate power supplies," he said.

"In the city, households have recorded the highest electricity consumption, at about 34 percent, while business sector is at 29 percent," he said, adding that so far there were about 12,000 people who had agreed to participate in Earth Hour 2009.

The WWF expects that the event can save 10 percent of the city's electricity consumption.

"Based on that assumption, the event will save 300 megawatts, which is enough to switch off one power plant. The event will also save a total of Rp 200 million (US$17,500) spent on electricity," Rizal said.

He urged the city to enforce laws on energy-saving to cut the city's electricity consumption.

"It will mean something. But Jakartans should support the administration's steps," Rizal said.

The Earth Hour initiative was started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia, when 2.2 million people switched off their lights for an hour.

In 2008, the number grew to some 50 million supporters from 370 cities in 35 countries.

As of Mar. 17, 1,539 cities from 80 countries have committed to participating in Earth Hour 2009, exceeding this year's target of 1,000 cities around the world.

Governor Fauzi Bowo said the administration would team up with city police to secure the planned blackout areas.

Palyja launches program to net new customers

The Jakarta Post, Wed, 03/04/2009 4:05 PM 

 

JAKARTA: City water operator Palyja will start a new program in March to improve its services in the western part of Jakarta.

 

The Census Project 2009, which will run until December, includes investigations, surveys and new connection installments.

 

"Besides investigating illegal consumption and connections, we will also install 25,000 new connections," Palyja vice president director Herawati Prasetyo said in a statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

 

At least 166 officials will be involved in the project. Last year, Palyja had 398,557 customers in the western part of Jakarta.

Water quality tops complaints in consumer survey

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 12/22/2008 11:05 AM 

 

A one-month survey by the Indonesian Consumer Foundation (YLKI) shows that dirty tap water and a "mysterious" tariff increase are the top complaints about tap water by consumers in Jakarta.

 

The YLKI, which conducted the survey along with the Tap Water Users Committee (KPAM) and the Jakarta Water Supply Regulatory Body from Nov. 17 to Dec. 10, revealed the survey results in two meetings with consumers.

 

The first meeting, on Thursday, was held for customers of PT Aetra Air Jakarta, which supplies tap water to the eastern part of Jakarta. The second meeting, for PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) customers, was held on Saturday. Both companies are sub-contractors of the city water company, PAM Jaya.

 

"I never have a constant flow of tap water in my home, and when I do, it is usually dirty," Joko, an Aetra consumer from Tanah Tinggi in Central Jakarta, said at the first gathering.

 

"Aetra said we owed them Rp 676 million (US$67,600), but we have proof that we have always made our payments on time," Toto Suprapto, an Aetra consumer from the low-cost Pulo Gadung apartments said, showing the payment receipts.

 

"They cut off our water supply in the fasting month (September). They said that we had to pay for the arrears and the fines, when in fact we always paid them," he added.

 

Despite the poor service water prices in Jakarta, at an average of Rp 7,000 per cubic meter, are the highest in Indonesia, Irzal Z. Djamal, head of the Jakarta Water Supply Regulatory Body said during the first meeting.

 

Representatives from Aetra were present during the gathering but volunteered no comments.

 

Aetra's business services director, Rhamses Simanjuntak, said in a phone interview that one of the reasons why customers received low quality water was because they use water-pumps.

 

"Even the slightest crack could spoil the water's quality as water and other substances outside the distribution pipe might mix with the water from the pipe. Customers should not be using water pumps," he told The Jakarta Post.

 

Responding the customers' claims that they had to use water pumps because of poor water pressure, Rhamses said Aetra was trying their best to solve the problem.

 

"We are currently proposing our investment plan to PAM Jaya for rehabilitation on pipes and infrastructures to improve our services in the next five years," he said.

 

According to Rhamses, Aetra is planning to add a new booster pump in Cilincing, North Jakarta and to upgrade their booster pumps in Sungai Bambu and Sumur Batu in North and Central Jakarta. The project is due for completion in early 2009, according to Rhamses' estimation.

 

Booster pumps are used to increase pressure in water lines, or to pull water from a storage tank. Aetra invested Rp 5 billion for a booster pump in Cilincing, which can pump 700 liters of water per second. During the gathering for Palyja customers, YLKI head Indah Sukmaningsih said dirty water and lack of distribution were both "classic" problems.

 

"What we really need to focus on is the sudden change of criteria for the grouping of tap water consumers. The criteria change increases the tariff between 50 to 150 percent for each consumer," she said.

 

Water tariffs are categorized based on the condition of the buildings they supply. Low-cost apartment tenants, for example, pay much lower tariffs that those who live in luxury apartments. Many customers said water operators sometimes change their tariff category after they have their houses renovated.

 

Sofyan Hadi from KPAM said they are currently conducting research to find proof regarding the tariff changes.

 

"About three months ago they suddenly changed the criteria for Group 2 consumers from 36-square-meter buildings to 28-square-meters," he added.

 

He said they objected to the criteria change because it tripled the tariffs from Rp 1,050 to Rp 3,550 for former Group 2 consumers who are now categorized as Group 3A. Palyja did not inform customers about the change, he said.

 

"When we have gathered enough proof that they changed the criteria without informing the consumers and increased the tariffs for their own benefit, KPAM along with YLKI and other NGOs will file a class action lawsuit against Palyja as early as January 2009," Sofyan said.

 

Palyja representatives did not provide any comments during the gathering.

 

"There were six representatives from Palyja attending the gathering, but because of a policy between us and the regulatory body, we only served as observers," Palyja Corporate Communication Head, Meyritha Maryanie, told The Jakarta Post by phone.

 

"We will list all the complaints the regulatory body compiled in the gathering. They promised that they will submit all of them to us by Tuesday," she said.

 

Meyritha also denied that Palyja did not properly inform their consumers regarding the changes in group criteria.

 

"The criteria change was made based on a Memorandum of Understanding between Palyja, PAM Jaya and Aetra in 2005 but the implementation began during the third quarter of 2007," she said.

 

Meyritha said Palyja had informed their consumers by mail, but did so in several phases. In the first phase, they mailed 5,000 consumers and by 2008 had almost finished mailing consumers.

 

"It is impossible for us to visit our tens of thousands consumers one by one, so we choose to mail them instead," she said.

 

Palyja recently submitted a proposal to the city administration to increase water tariffs by an average 22.7 percent in 2009 to fund their Rp 200 million investment for the year. Palyja said they would use the investment for infrastructure rehabilitation and an improvement of service quality. (hdt)

Mud, chlorine still flow through city water pipes

Tifa Asrianti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta |Tue, 03/25/2008 11:20 AM

Residents of North and East Jakarta were still enduring muddy tap water with a strong chlorine smell on Monday as a result of a water production disruption that occurred 10 days ago.

Malya Permanasari, a resident of Rawa Badak in North Jakarta, said her tap water had been murky for the last few days.

"I was in a hurry, so I had to use the muddy water. At least the water doesn't smell like the gutter," said Malya, who has been a water company customer since 1985.

Another Rawa Badak resident, Luki Arifin, said besides being dirty, his tap water also had a strong smell of chlorine.

"I can use the water as I only use it for bathing and washing," he said. "But I have to let the water sit for a while to allow the mud to settle. However, I can't do anything about the chlorine."

Similar complaints have come from East Jakarta residents.

Stefani, who lives in Pondok Kopi, and Lisa Gunawan, who live in Jatinegara, said the water in their area also had a strong smell of chlorine.

On March 13, PT Thames PAM Jaya (TPJ) issued a notification letter saying it had suffered a 9.5 percent decrease in targeted water production after heavy rain upstream raised the turbidity level.

The raw water turbidity level, as recorded from raw water supplier Perum Jasa Tirta II Jatiluhur, was over 9,000 NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Unit), above the 2,500 NTU tolerance level.

To meet the required clean water standard, TPJ performed a sterilization process, affecting water production in 66 subdistricts in North and East Jakarta.

TPJ communications director Rhamses Simanjuntak said even though water production was disrupted for a few hours, water supply could be affected for longer.

"Therefore, we sent notification letters to the media to be published in advance, so that our customers were ready if water supply slowed down or even stopped suddenly," Rhamses told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

According to Rhamses, the notification letter stated TPJ's responsibility to customers and said the company would not compensate customers for any disruption to water quality or supply.

When asked about the muddy water in Rawa Badak, he said the problem might be caused by technical work close to the area. As for the chlorine smell, Rhamses said it was probably caused by the sterilization process.

After signing a 25-year contract with city-owned water company PAM Jaya in 1997, TPJ and its counterpart PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) supply tap water to the city.

Many customers have complained about the two operators' poor tap water quality amid increasing water rates applied by the administration.

Some customers have switched to groundwater in an attempt to find cleaner water.

Stefani said her family stopped using tap water and turned to groundwater six months ago. However, she continues to pay the subscription fee because she often uses piped water to pump the groundwater.

"Piped water makes my skin itchy. Besides, we can't rely on piped water, the water supply often stops without any explanation," Stefani said.

Another Pondok Kopi resident, Nova, also turned to groundwater two months ago after the water company changed her house status and increased rates.

"The rate was too expensive and didn't match with the company's performance. It's cheaper to use groundwater," she said.

Mobile-8 moves to net more customers

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Cellular company PT Mobile-8 Telecom, the operator of CDMA-based mobile phone service Fren, launched a wireless application system for mobile phone handsets Tuesday in another effort to meet the company's target to raise its subscriber base by 66 percent next year.

Director and chief of corporate affairs Merza Fachys said the system, called b-live, allowed subscribers to access applications such as ring tones, English dictionary, and games and information provided by a number of news portals, from Fren-ZTE C300 and Fren-ZTE C330 mobile telephone handsets.

Further development of the system in the future will allow subscribers to access such applications from other types of handsets, he said.

"With the introduction of the new system, we expect to net five million customers by the end of 2008," Merza said after the launching, adding that by the end of this year, the company expected to have around 3 million subscribers, up from 1.8 million last year.

Merza said that in addition to the new system, the company would also increase its customer base next year through the expansion of its CDMA service into fixed wireless access (FWA) networks.

"Early next year, we will launch FWA in six cities in Java and Kalimantan," he said.

At present, through 1,200 relay towers, Fren services are available in nine provinces: Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Bali, South Sulawesi, South Kalimantan, North Sumatra and South Sumatra.

Merza said his company was also constructing 1,000 new relay masts in West Sumatra, Lampung, Jambi, East Kalimantan and Riau Islands.

During the first three quarters of this year, Mobile-8 booked a profit of Rp 55 billion, a 513 percent increase from the Rp 9 billion recorded in the same period last year. The company's gross revenue reached Rp 803.8 billion during the January-September period, indicating a 53.8 percent increase over the same period in 2006.(ndr)

Tangerang water supply disrupted

The Jakarta Post

TANGERANG: Water supply to some 86,000 customers in Tangerang municipality and regency was disrupted Friday because of problems at Pintu Sepuluh dam.

Three of 10 sluice gates at the dam on the Cisadane River dam broke down as a result of years of accumulated rust.

Suhanda, a spokesman for Tangerang regency's water company, PDAM Tirta Kerta Raharja, said the damage reduced by more than 75 percent the company's daily water supply.

Most of affected customers were located in Cikokol subdistrict and areas near Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

"The water level fell so low it could not enter our production installation," Suhanda said.

He asked the Water Resources Management Board, as the supervisor of the Cisadane River, to complete repair work on the dam as quickly as possible.

Indra Setiawan, the spokesman for Tangerang city's water company, PDAM Tirta Benteng, said the company was unable to ensure supplies as long as the sluice gates remained out of order.

"We can only apologize to our customers," he said.

The two water companies have yet to calculate their financial losses as a result of the disruption.--JP