Inp.polri.go.id - Bandung. West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi revealed that residents living near the Aqua bottled water factory in Subang complained of difficulty accessing clean water, despite the company’s operations extracting groundwater from the area.

“Water from here is taken and sold at a high price, while people living around the mountain can’t even bathe because they have no clean water,” he said during a recent inspection visit to PT Tirta Investama’s Subang plan, as seen in a video he posted on social media.

Residents told the governor they had never received any direct clean water distribution from the company. Reports of similar water scarcity have surfaced in other Aqua plant locations, including Central Java’s Klaten, West Java’s Bogor, and East Java’sPasuruan, where wells reportedly dry up during the dry season, according to antaranews.com.

A 2021 Muhammadiyah University Surakarta study found irrigation water in Klaten dropped by 76% after Aqua’s operations began. In response, Aqua said it continues to engage communities and NGOs to ensure fair and sustainable water management.

(mg/inp/pr/rs)