Drinking water scarce, it was the headline of popular newspaper in my city. Citizens were yelling to ask local authority to safe drinking water. The problem is, water is renewable resource, which will never be empty, always be there for water supply. So, why do these people feel that they do not get appropriate drinking that they deserve to get?
Indeed, the existence of water is abundance, but water which is feasible to be consumed is very rare, and somehow considered luxurious stuff. This is unavoidable when the city has rapid growth of population and on the other hand, water supply treatment plant (PDAM) in Surabaya can not fulfil the demand. Thus, no wonder that some private water supply are established to meet the remaining demand. The establsihment of some private company emerges concern from PDAM. They feel that they are still able to serve population in Surabaya.
Due to this conflict, PDAM claimed potential loss 5 to 6 billions per year due to consumer confiscation by these private companies. One problem arises, does PDAM have right to claim special rights to treat water and distribute to people, when the water source itself is belong to public not by one company. This answer may be answered by related regulation, which I do not know precisely about it.
Just for information, PDAM capability at present has reached 9,030 L/sec. And if Karang Pilang Water Treatment Installation has been completed, the capacity would be reaching 11,030 L/sec, 2,000 L/sec higher than without new installation.
Despite of the continous conflict, still people’s right of water can not be abandoned, just because of conflict of interest, money view. Good management and coordination must be held to ensure that people get the very basic need of humans.