Desalination Backlog Leaves Jakarta Households Rationed by the Bucket

JAKARTA — The Tethys Hydrous Group acknowledged this week that its desalination capacity here is running roughly a fifth short of registered demand, forcing utilities to meter delivery by the household and the hour across the city's northern wards. The shortfall is not new water lost but old water no longer arriving: the Oceanic & Atmospheric Assembly logs the regional sea surface at the same +2.8°C anomaly that has held for months, and warmer intake means slower, costlier throughput. "I fill two buckets at dawn and two at dusk, and I plan the day around them," said Sri Handayani, a market vendor in Penjaringan who now queues before her stall opens. Tethys says three retrofit lines will come online before the dry season deepens, but concedes the arithmetic stays tight until they do. For households like Handayani's, the promise is measured against a bucket that empties faster than the plants can fill it.