Water supply in Wonogiri cut off due to drought

The Jakarta Post, Wonogiri, Central Java, Mon, September 25

The prolonged dry season has caused the Gajah Mungkur reservoir in Wonogiri, Central Java, to dry up, halting supply to local water company PDAM Giri Tirta Sari. As a result, the company cut off residents' water supply on Monday.

According to data supplied by state-owned water supplier Jasa Tirta I Bengawan Solo region, water levels at the reservoir have dropped by an average of 10 centimeters a day.

“We have no option other but to cut off the water supply to residents in some areas in Wonogiri city,” PDAM Giri Tirta Sari Wonogiri head Sumarjo said on Monday.

Erwando Rahmadi, the water service and resources division head at Jasa Tirta I Bengawan Solo region, said the situation also affected operations at the Wonogiri hydropower plant (PLTA).

As a result, electricity to residents in Wonogiri has been partly supplied from Surakarta.

Jasa Tirta sub-divison head Hendrawan Cahyo Nugroho said the remaining water at the reservoir could only be channeled to an irrigation facility to help provide water to agricultural areas in Sukoharjo, Klaten, Karanganyar, Sragen and Ngawi.

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Bajo ‘water tribe’ choked by water crisis

The Jakarta Post, not todays news but interesting reading all the same,

The world might know them as "sea gypsies" for living on sea, half-a-kilometer from the nearest coastline for centuries. But little might people know that the Bajo tribe, locally dubbed as the water tribe, currently are being choked by a water crisis.

The unique tribe and its village have become a tourist destination that has attracted thousands of local and foreign visitors. However, freshwater scarcity ironically has been troubling the 1,490 people living in Torosiaje village, Gorontalo, Southeast Sulawesi, for months.

The local administration actually had installed water piping last year, but the pipes continue to be clogged on a daily basis, forcing people to buy fresh water from the nearby village onshore for Rp 10,000 (76 US cents) per drum.

“The water supply is more frequently clogged than normal.( Hmm, I wonder why?, Could it be a "corck" temporarily in the land-side of the pipe, making the 'boaties' having to come up with some extea duit in the dompet of the water-sellers? allemachies, siK.s comment).

To save water, here the people take a bath and wash their clothes with seawater and use freshwater to rinse afterwards,” said Jekson Sompah, the Torosiaje village chief, to The Jakarta Post recently.

Responding to the report, Pohuwato regency-owned water company (PDAM) head Hairudin Usman said frequent power outages by state-owned electricity firm PLN in the region disrupted the water supply to the Bajo tribe’s village.

“I’m not trying to shift the blame but they are the facts,” he said,( Yup, good try bung says siK) adding that the electricity-generated pumps were crucial as gravity and pressure-based plumbing were not capable of supplying isolated villages such as Torosiaje.


siK.


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