Jakarta – Residents of Muara Baru, Penjaringan district in North Jakarta are starting to suffer the effects of the dry season and are complaining that their wells are running out of water.

"During the dry season, water is always limited. We can only draw a little amount of water out of the well," said Maryati, 59, a resident of Muara Baru, as reported by Antara news agency on Thursday.

According to Maryati, not only is her well drying up, but also some of the public wells located in her community unit.

When one of the public wells ran out of water, the residents went to a privately owned well to get water.

The water from that well is being used by the community to wash clothes and dishes and to mop the floor.

One of the benefits of having access to the private well is that the residents do not have to purchase a lot of clean water from elsewhere for their daily needs.

Each resident buys 120 liters of clean water from the owner for Rp 10,000 (70 US cents).

"For most of my daily necessities, I purchase clean water. I've only used the water from the well to clean my restroom," said the 55-year-old Wati.

She also said that the water from the well was not of good quality, saying that it occasionally tasted sour or salty. At times, the water also looked brownish.

"Most of the residents only use the well water to wash clothes and clean restrooms."

Jakarta's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency announced that two areas in North Jakarta would be going 31 to 60 days without rain. (bry)

Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/07/05/wells-drain-as-dry-season-hits-north-jakarta.html