Amid the city administration’s effort to acquire the majority stake of a private water company, city-owned property developer PT Pembangunan Jaya says that it is ready to take over water management in the capital.
The city administration aims to take over a 51 percent stake in PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja), which is currently controlled by a French-based utility company Suez Environment.
“We are owned by the city administration. Once the city assigns and appoints us, as professionals, we have to be ready,” Pembangunan Jaya director Winarto said in Ancol, North Jakarta, on Wednesday, adding that a negotiation process was ongoing.
PT Pembangunan Jaya has been developing reverse osmosis water purification technology for the past two years, managing to produce 5,000 cubic meters of clean water per day from seawater, or almost half of the 12,000 cubic meters of water needed per day by the Ancol area managed by the company.
The company invested Rp 50 billion (US$48.5 million) for the development of the technology.
“We are planning to expand, as it has proven to be working well,” he said. “We managed to reduce water leakage in Ancol to less than 5 percent,” he added.
When asked whether it is possible to apply such technology to a wider area, Winarto answered positively.
“We have learned from Singapore, which uses technology to manage water from various sources, including conventional sources like rivers, recycled water and rain water. We should explore all sources. But Jakarta also has a huge water source: the sea. We can manage it,” he said.
Suez Environment had planned to sell the stake to Manila Water South Asia, a subsidiary of the Philippines-based Manila Water. However, city-owned water company PT PAM Jaya rejected the plan.
The remaining 49 percent of Palyja is owned by PT Astratel Nusantara, a subsidiary of automotive giant PT Astra International.
The city administration also plans to involve city-owned developer PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro) in the acquisition plan.
To support the plan, which is currently being discussed by the City Council, the city is proposing to inject up to Rp 2 trillion in government investment participation (PMP) into the companies.
The city plans to inject up to Rp 1 trillion each into Pembangunan Jaya and Jakpro, which has a number of projects, including developing the National Monument’s (Monas) underground area.
Jakpro president director Budhi Karya said that the company did not expect that the council would agree to approve the entire amount this year.
“It is OK if the council only approves Rp 500 billion to Rp 600 billion. That amount would be enough for the moment,” he said.
Jakarta’s clean water facilities have been managed by Palyja in the west of the city and PT Aetra Air Jakarta in the east for 16 years.
