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In the “neighborhood unit” called RW 12 in North Jakarta’s Penjaringan district, residents live in the most crowded area in the capital, if not Indonesia.

While a neighborhood usually consists of several hundred households, RW 12 is overflowing with 3,201 of them, according to official figures. Based on an average of four people per tiny house, there are at least 12,804 people crammed into these 23 hectares, although one local aid worker estimated the population at closer to 38,000.

It’s no surprise that life in this former swamp is pretty dismal. Seawater invades groundwater wells due to excess extraction in North Jakarta, and pollution is frightening because there is an almost complete lack of sanitation facilities.

To add insult to injury, the city-owned water operator, PDAM, used to refuse to provide water connections to most of RW 12 because its residents are illegal squatters.

That’s the official line. Under the table, PDAM workers, however, have been known to install connections to anyone who can afford to pay, local residents say. Residential “entrepreneurs” — Jakarta’s legendary street mafia, or preman — exploited the situation by selling clean water to residents from their own illegal house connections. Water costs Rp 500 (50 cents) for a 19-liter jerry can or two full buckets, and Rp 1,500 for a cart that holds 120 liters.

Programs by nongovernmental organizations to connect such slums to the city’s piped water system are often met with threats and sometimes violence by these low-end operators. As a result, Jakarta’s poor pay 20 to 40 times more for their water than rich residents who have a connection.

“Our family spends about Rp 60,000 a month, and it’s troubling because we have to go back and forth and queue for water,” said Tona, 45, a housewife and mother of three.

Leon Sumihar, who runs the Water for All program in the nearby Muara Baru neighborhood, said that preman regularly threaten workers from his company, Palyja, one of the city’s two privately-run water providers, who are installing connections and meters there under a World Bank program.

“The preman operating water sales are low income, low education and they don’t care about policemen. They don’t care about anybody,” Sumihar said.

When the connection program was launched in Muara Baru, a mob of gun-toting water vendors protested and smashed cars. They refused to shut down their water selling businesses even after being offered compensation because the profits are so good.

The connection program finally appears to have the upper hand in Muara Baru, where residents now pay around Rp 20,000 a month for piped water. Under the tariff program, they receive 15 cubic meters of water per month at the lowest rate, Rp 1,050 per cubic meter. If they use more, the rate goes up.

Back in Penjaringan, RW 12 finally received connections for 60 households three months ago under a program involving PDAM and the International Development Research Center of Canada. The program, called the Communal Master Meter, is similar to the one in Muara Baru, where residents get 24-hour piped water and are billed monthly. It was no easy task to convince water vendors to accept the program.

“It took us about a year because we had to approach and explain to those people,” said Vincent Hermanus Pooroe, an urban water and sanitation officer from Mercy Corps, an international aid organization working in the area.

Some local residents and aid workers claim that PDAM staff are also unhappy with the master meter program because they received payoffs from the water vendors to allow them to stay in business.

“They’re afraid to lose their income, but they have enjoyed profits for dozens of years. It’s time for people to enjoy cheaper water,” said Sutarman, a community leader, referring to vendors and the PDAM workers who exploited the situation.

As part of the program, an agreement was reached allowing vendors to continue selling their water while the majority of the houses wait for connections.

The problem is that the water flow is low, only about 12 cubic meters a day, which is less than the expected 17.4 cubic meters from the initial design. One recent weekend, the water didn’t flow at all, forcing residents to go back to the vendors.