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any residents in Makassar, South Sulawesi, are complaining about water stoppages from PDAM, the city'€™s tap water company, which are taking place from Wednesday to Saturday.

The stoppages are being caused by a damaged pipeline in the raw water facility.

'€œWe will not have water for four days. This will make our life more difficult as water is a basic need. I get my water only from PDAM,'€ Daeng Anas, a resident of Jl. Faisal in Rappocini district, said on Tuesday.

Daeng said he did not know how he would obtain clean water in the next four days, especially as he did not have access to groundwater.

'€œWe can buy mineral water for our daily consumption, but it will be difficult to fulfill other needs, such as bathing and washing. My family uses quite a lot of water,'€ he said.

Nini, another resident who lives on Jl. Daeng Tata in Tamalate district, also voiced similar complaints. The housewife said she was annoyed to learn of the water supply disruption and added that customers should have been given a better service after the company recently raised the water tariff.

'€œI don'€™t understand why the service declined when the water tariff increased,'€ she said.

Nini said her family would be forced to use groundwater at her house for the next few days.

'€œTo me, groundwater is more expensive as we need to operate an electric pump,'€ she said.

PDAM said the water supply in seven districts '€” Tamalate, Rappocini, Mamajang, Mariso, Makassar, Panakkukang and Ujungpandang '€” would be cut off for four days because the pipelines that channeled raw water to the company'€™s facility were damaged.

The damage has affected 80,000 households, or 50 percent of total PDAM customers. On Tuesday, Makassar PDAM chief spokesman Idris Tahir apologized to the public.

'€œWe apologize for the supply disruption. The damage is not within PDAM'€™s facility, but in the pipeline. The water supply must be stopped during the repair work. Unfortunately, we have no water stock for customers,'€ he said.

He said PDAM was ready to help residents obtain water.

'€œWe have provided 11 tankers that will supply water to residents during the stoppage,'€ said Idris.

The damage has been found in the pipeline that channels raw water from the Bili-Bili Dam in Gowa regency to the Somba Opu water treatment facility and later to PDAM, which channels it to customers.

The party responsible for the raw water transmission pipeline from Bili-Bili Dam is the Pompengan-Jeneberang River Center.

An official at the center has promised to repair the broken pipeline immediately.

Haryono Utomo, the head of the water resource network application division at the center, said the pipeline must be dried during the repair work, which was why the sluice gate would be closed to block the raw water flow. '€œWe will inspect the pipe leakage today [Wednesday]. The inspection will be conducted from inside the pipe, so we need to stop the raw water flow,'€ Haryono said.

He said after the damage was specifically located, his office would determine the method of repair.

'€œHopefully, we can speed up the repair work and complete it before Saturday, so PDAM can resume operations,'€ he said.