TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Dozens of residents of Muara Angke, Penjaringan Subdistrict, North Jakarta, staged a rally in front of the Jakarta City Hall on Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 22, demanding Governor Anies Baswedan provide drinking water services.

The residents coming from Kampung Blok Limbah, Blok Eceng, and Blok Empang carried empty jerry cans while shouting demands.

“Kampung Blok Limbah, Blok Eceng, and Blok Empang have been developed since the 1980s, but until now there has been no drinking water service from the provincial government except for one water kiosk built in 2020 in Blok Eceng and it is also being operated commercially,” said Muslimin as the chairman of the Eceng Maju Sejahtera Cooperative.

According to him, Muara Angke residents must buy refilled gallon water or bottled water for daily consumption.

“To date, residents spend an average of Rp13,000 per day per family for drinking and cooking water. Meanwhile, for washing clothes and bathing, residents use groundwater around 200 liters per family for one day and spend Rp25,000,” he added.

Thus, one family spent Rp1,140,000 per month just for water, Muslimin concluded. As the majority of people work as traditional fishermen, the amount is highly burdensome.

The Jakarta Water Resources official Afan Adriansyah Idris who met the protesters confirmed that the city’s water company PDAM already has a clean water supply plan.

“The plan has been carried out by PDAM. This year, it has allocated 100 water kiosk locations and there will be three stages [construction projects]. I'll check it later and I'll ask for the steps to be accelerated as soon as possible,” he said.

Afan also said there will be a subsidy in accordance with Gubernatorial Regulation No. 57 of 2021 on the fourth amendment to Gubernatorial Regulation No. 11 of 2007 on automatic tariff adjustment for drinking water issued by Anies Baswedan.

Read: Clean Water Crisis Hits 57 Thousand Residents in Bogor

EKA YUDHA SAPUTRA