Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - Head PR of PDAM Bandarmasih Abdul Wahid at the Sungai Bilu water intake.(Antara/Sukarli)
The salt level of the Martapura River water in Banjarmasin has dropped dramatically from 2,000 miligram to 285 miligram per liter. It enables water company (PDAM) to take it again as its raw water.
Head PR of PDAM Bandarmasih Abdul Wahid here on Tuesday (Oct 22) remarked based on the sample test the company has done the salt level contens of the water of Martapura River in Banjarmasin it has dropped and keep dropping.
Of course, he pointed out, it was due to rain that caused seawater to be pushed back to the sea.
"In the last two days based on our monitoring the salt level was still above 500 mm per liter, but then it keep dropping, until the last we found it reach 285 mm per liter," Wahid assured.
According to him, the Sungai Bilu water intake which has been stopped operation for more than a month, because of the high salinity of river water, now back to operational. "Now the Sungai Bilu water intake has already on operation for 24 hours a day," he declared.
He acknowledged, eventhough the salt level of Maratapura River water in Banjarmasin has yet to reach the threshhold, the maximum is only 250 mm perliter, to be processed, but with a mixing system it could be processed into clean water.
"So the water we take from Sungai Bilu water intake mixed with water taken from Sungai Tabuk water intake until salt content down. Then we send it to Water Processing Installation (IPA) on Jalan A Yani," he explained.
Now after the IPA A Yani back to operation, as it getting supplied of raw water from Sungai Bilu water intake, Wahid stated that clean water production from the installation back to normal of 1,700 m3 per hour.
Meanwhile, the IPA on Jalan Pramuka, supplied by Sungai Tabuk water intake, Banjar District, produces 4.600--4.700 m3 clean water per hour.
"For sure this time as many as 170,000 customers of PDAM Bandarmasih do not need to worry about clean water and distribution to come to normal until suburban area," he concluded.
