How do cities in Indonesia treat their drinking water?

Dear Connor,

No data is available on the average continuity of water supply in Indonesian cities. However, in Jakarta 92% of users received continuous water supply in 2001. Concerning drinking water quality, about 30% of the water distributed by water companies in the country is contaminated with E. coli or fecal coliforms and other pathogens. The results of drinking water quality tests are not made public. Most Indonesians do not dare drink water directly from the tap and boil water or buy bottled water, if they can afford it.

With my best regards

Prof. Bachir ACHOUR

You might find the attached documents and links, and their references, informative Connor

John

Most of the cities in Indonesia treat drinking water by utilizing conventional water treatment plant (WTP) and generally operated by PDAM (regional water utility company). In principle, the quality of the drinking water from this WTP should be monitored by public health officer as well as PDAM. The drinking water supplied by PDAM is not directly consumed by the inhabitants, they boil the water from the tap first before drinking it.  In one case, the quality of the supplied water is not quite good looking to the visual look of the supplied water (high turbidity and coloured). But in some bigger cities, the quality of the water is good. Generally chlorine is used as disinfectant in the WTP. 

For the rural area, drinking water is treated by a simple or conventional treatment. The quality of drinking water is not regularly monitored. The treatment scheme usually starts with intake, rapid sand filter, reservoir and ended up by the house connection. Sometimes the lack of trained operators reduced the efficiency of rapid sand filter that finally affecting the quality of drinking water.