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The Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), in collaboration
with Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., has successfully developed a pump
equipped with ozone-based water purification technology, which it has
dubbed Aquaoasis and plans to start mass producing in April.
"This is a very important product for ITB because of the involvement of
its researchers in the development process," ITB Rector Djoko Santoso
said Wednesday in Jakarta.
He said he hoped the pump would help improve access to clean water
around the country.
The government is currently striving to meet the United Nations
Millennium Development Goal of providing access to clean water to 80
percent of the country's population by 2015.
Currently, only 34 percent of the 215 million people have access to
clean water.
Sanyo, which invested US$1 million in the development of the Aquaoasis
pump, will produce and sell it, while the ITB will evaluate and analyze
its benefits in Indonesia.
"We will invest US$3 million more and plan to produce 20,000 pumps in
the first year," said Sanyo executive director Akira Kan.
He said Sanyo would manufacture the pumps at its plant in Cikarang,
West Java, and sell them for $700 each. However, he said he expected
the price could be reduced after production increased.
He stressed that the pumps would contain 70 percent local and 30
percent imported content, with the ozonizer being imported from Japan.
After one year of production and sale in Indonesia, the pumps would be
exported to other developing countries, such as India, Vietnam,
Malaysia and the Philippines.
Industry Minister Fahmi Idris said the planned exports of Aquaoasis
pumps would hopefully help increase Indonesia's foreign exchange
earnings from electronics exports to $9.5 billion in 2009 from $6.6
billion in 2005.
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