President Director Of PAM Jaya Predicts 90 Percent Of Jakarta Area To Be Submerged In 2050 Due To Groundwater Use

Illustration - Residential settlements in Jakarta (DOK ANTARA)

JAKARTA - President Director of Perumda PAM Jaya Arief Nasrudin said that 90 percent of the area in Jakarta, especially in the northern region, is predicted to sink in 2050 because the land surface continues to decline.

This prediction, said Arief, could happen if the people of Jakarta continued to exploit the use of ground water for their daily needs.

"In the near future, when this continues, in 2050 it is predicted that 90 percent of the Jakarta area, especially in the northern part, will be submerged because of culture or later the use of water which is not resolved immediately," said Arief in a virtual discussion, Monday, August 8th.

To prevent the sinking of Jakarta from actually happening, Arief said that his party is trying to provide PAM water services that flow throughout the Jakarta area.

Currently, PAM Jaya's service coverage is still distributed to 66 percent of the Jakarta area. The fulfillment of service coverage of about 34 percent of the remaining will be accelerated until 2030.

"Our issue, PAM Jaya, is that in terms of drinking water supply, the coverage is not currently meeting the wishes of the people of DKI Jakarta. Hopefully, we can supply coverage to reach 100 percent in the future," said Arief.

Furthermore, Arief said PAM Jaya will add around 11,000 liters of raw water per second from the existing one, which will later be distributed to the people of Jakarta to meet their needs.

In the future, DKI will receive additional raw water supplies from the construction of the Jatiluhur drinking water supply system (SPAM) to the Karian Serpong SPAM.

"From this, SPAM aims to accelerate the basic needs of the people in DKI Jakarta Province whose target is 100 percent service in 2030," said Arief.

"This is one of the concerns of PAM and the DKI Provincial Government because the ecological effects of this process are quite numerous. Such as changes in environmental conditions and residents' health due to groundwater contamination. This is also the effect of the groundwater extraction process itself," he added.