Water Mafia Exploits the Poor

The tap water mafia exploits people who live in slums in Jakarta. They offer illegal plumbing services to people living in slum areas. People are forced to buy clean water at a much higher rate.

KOMPAS/IRENE SARWINDANINGRUM

WY (57), a resident of Kapuk Muara, North Jakarta, shows the names of the perpetrators who demanded payments of tens of millions of rupiah for the illegal installation of piped water. Later he felt cheated because the entire channel was removed even though he had paid a lot.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The conspiracy between a syndicate of water thieves and people that damaged the tap water company PAM\'s pipe network took place on disputed land. Low-income communities in disputed areas are forced to buy clean water taken from illegal water pipe connections. They did not have a choice because they did not have access to the tap water services. The cost of living is rising and the PAM tap water distribution network has been disrupted.

This issue has repeatedly triggered conflicts between people, especially between the legal customers of the tap water company (PAM) and the people living on the disputed land. Kompas found that there were 121 illegal tap water pipe connections in Penjaringan and Cilincing, North Jakarta. These two areas are included in the areas with the highest level of tap water theft in Jakarta.

In Kapuk Muara subdistrict, Penjaringan district, North Jakarta, a syndicate of thieves cooperated with local water traders to store the illegal water supply to nine tanks with a capacity of 10,000 liters equipped with five water pumps. In this place, 57 illegal water pipe connections were also found, some of them without a meter.

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This stored water is then sold to people at a price of Rp 9,000 per cubic meter, above the average water rate in the area, which is Rp 7,800 per cubic meter. The water tariff in the village is also equivalent to the tariff for class IVA, including foreign embassies, lawyers\' offices and middle-class businesses.

Many times, people saw a group of people in uniforms resembling PAM Jaya officers and wearing similar operational cars for operators to help connect pipes. Usually, they do the water pipe connection late at night.

"There was no notification to us, suddenly they just worked. Twice we confiscated the water pipes they installed because of the local residents\' demands," said head of RW 005 Kapuk Muara subdistrict, Penjaringan, North Jakarta, Sutari, Saturday (29/5/2021).

The illegal connection of pipes is also suspected to involve the local subdistrict head, the field employees of private operators, and former PAM Jaya employees.

Based on Kompas observation, until the first week of June 2021, some illegal water pipe connections were still installed. Black pipes, a type of high-pressure plastic pipe (high density polyethylene/HDPE) still existed in waterways around residential areas. This pipeline network stretches hundreds of meters from the distribution pipe to the residents\' houses.

In addition to water traders, the illegal connection of pipes is also suspected to involve the local subdistrict head, the field employees of private operators, and former PAM Jaya employees. Their involvement is marked by money transactions for services to illegally connect the water pipes to the residents who are in need of clean water. For each illegal water pipe connection, one part of the water thief syndicate set a tariff of Rp 15 million-Rp 20 million to residents.

KOMPAS / ANDY RIZA HIDAYAT

A resident of RW 05, Kapuk Muara Village, Penjaringan Subdistrict, North Jakarta, shows a water pipe confiscated from a gang of water thieves, Saturday (22/05/2021). Local residents confiscated the pipe because of the piped water crisis there.

Public report

Kompas started the investigation following people\'s reports on Twitter about the tap water crisis at the Villa Kapuk Mas housing complex, Kapuk Muara, Penjaringan, North Jakarta. From this tweet, the conflict between residents was revealed.

Residents, who are PAM customers, do not get tap water supply. However, there are other residents who get clean water supply from illegal pipe connections. Conflicts between residents over clean water are still ongoing until this writing was produced.

It was revealed that two residents, WY and UM, conspired with a water thief syndicate. Among the 57 illegal water pipe connections, there is also a water meter at the Dahlia 3 Posyandu, Kapuk Muara subdistrict, which is used by syndicates and residents.

This was acknowledged by PAM Jaya which mentioned the use of water pipe meter at Posyandu (integrated health service post). WY and UM said that the use of the Posyandu water meter was allegedly with the permission of the head of Muara Kapuk subdistrict, Jason Simanjuntak.

Jason also denied allegations that the residents were forced to pay to use the Posyandu water meter.

WY, the liaison between the residents and the criminals who steal PAM tap water system, admitted that he paid the head of Muara Kapuk subdistrict head, Jason Simanjuntak, Rp 10 million to be able to use the Posyandu meter. "The village head said we could use it, but first we paid Rp 10 million," said WY.

Regarding the accusation, Jason Simanjuntak strongly denied. He did not know anything about Posyandu water meters. "No [request for] permission to me," said Jason.

He admitted that he did not know where the Posyandu water meter was. Jason also denied allegations that the residents were forced to pay to use the Posyandu water meter.

Not only WY, UM also used the services of the PAM water pipe burglar syndicate. He also mentioned the involvement of subdistrict head Jason and individuals wearing PAM Jaya uniforms who helped illegally install the water pipes. "I didn\'t know [the person in the PAM uniform]. There were four people. I paid off, I handed it over to the subdistrict head,” said UM.

Kompas

Water sold to residents under the toll road in Pejagalan Village, Penjaringan Subdistrict, North Jakarta, (10/6/2021)

Commotion

Before Kompas traced the network of people involved in the tap water burglary, a member of the Jakarta Legislative Council (DPRD) from the Indonesian Solidarity Party faction, Viani Limardi, came to the location at the end of 2020. She mediated the commotion between residents triggered by the lack of clean water supply. Viani together with PAM Jaya, the police and Palyja officers (as the water service operator) went to the parties involved in the theft.

After the incident, Kompas got information from various sources, who mentioned Yudha Fitrianto as a PAM Jaya employee who helped illegally install the water pipe connections. According to WY, Yudha was assisted by two people known as Pardi and Endro.

WY\'s testimony is in line with the statement of Rapris Simanjuntak, manager of commercial handling at PT Palyja. "Yanto\'s name is not at our place [Palyja]. It turns out that Yudha Fitrianto was a former PAM employee," he said.

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Separately, Kompas got a statement from Yudha Fitrianto. He denied his name was associated with the illegal installation of water pipe connections. "I don\'t know about the illegal installation," said Yudha, when contacted from Jakarta, Wednesday (2/6).

Information from PAM Jaya, Yudha has retired and no longer has the right to work as an employee and serve consumers. Meanwhile, the names of Pardi and Endro are not listed in the list of PAM employees. “If there are employees who are actively involved in such practices, we will take firm measure. That\'s a principle for us,” said PAM Jaya technical director Untung Suryadi.

According to Untung, the theft of water in the disputed land occurred due to the high demand from residents. On this disputed land, people cannot apply for tap water services because they are hampered by the rules for installing new connections set by PAM Jaya. One of the conditions for applying for PAM tap water service is to include proof of Land and Building Tax (PBB) payment.

KOMPAS/IRENE SARWINDANINGRUM

Kampung Rawa Elok in Kapuk Muara, North Jakarta is one of the settlements located on land without a clear ownership certificate. This settlement does not yet have a piped water connection, so residents who are generally poor families have to pay more for their clean water needs.

Not only in Penjaringan subdistrict, Kompas also found illegal tap water pipe connections in Cilincing, North Jakarta. At this location, there are 64 illegal pipe connections to the four pipes connected to the main tap water distribution pipeline. This distribution pipe is then used by a person, identified with initials BA, who controls the land where the illegal connection is located.

BA manages a rented house on the land it controls in Sukapura subdistrict, Cilincing, North Jakarta. The head of RW 006 Sukapura, TB Yadi, did not acknowledge the existence of the building managed by BA because the status of the land was unclear. "In the past, it [the building owner] was fined by PAM," said Yadi.

When asked about it, BA did not answer clearly. He said he still enjoyed tap water from PAM and there was no cut off. "There are one, two, three, four water pipe connections," he said, referring to the number of water meters in place.

Suspicious

There are a number of suspicious locations scattered in Jakarta. One of them is under the toll road in Pejagalan subdistrict, Penjaringan district, North Jakarta. At that location, there is “an outlet” that sells clean water from PAM stored in two water tanks, each with a capacity of 3,000 liters. Besides being sold to small water traders, this “outlet” also serves workers in the nearby warehousing area.

Tarso, the manager of the water outlet, admitted that he used another person\'s meter who lives about 80 meters from under the toll road. “I used to be [assisted to install the pipe] with Pak Marbun, a Palyja man who is now retired. There is another name, Mr. Widi. He\'s already dead," Tarso said.

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The installation scheme of the water pipes contradicts the Regional Regulation No. 11/1993 concerning Drinking Water Services. One water meter should be used only for a plot of land and buildings.

Kompas asked PAM Jaya twice to check the suspicious location. However, this plan was delayed twice, Thursday (27/5) and Monday (31/5), because the private operator was not ready. "We asked the operator to inspect the location," said Untung Suryadi.

This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswoko.