Green-Watch: Let's make water an issue at the ballot box

Tue, 10/07/2008 10:02 AM  |  Environment

Respect for the environment is essential to our survival. Conservation serves more than the interests of the birds and the trees. Without air to breath and water to drink, the human race would be extinct.

So why is environmental protection not one of our top priorities? Surely both the national and local governments in Indonesia should be focusing more attention on the conservation of our natural resources.

Surely our concern about energy supply pales to insignificance when compared to the prospect of a water crisis.

In last week's Jakarta Post, Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, India, talked about the dangers of so-called water wars in Asia. He suggested that sound management is a key step to averting such dangers.

It is scandalous that a country surrounded by water that enjoys one of the highest annual rainfalls in the world, is in a state of such chaos. Both water supply and sanitation in Indonesia suffer from pitiful levels of access and appalling service quality.

More than 100 million people in the country lack access to safe water and more than 70 percent of the country's 220 million people rely on water obtained from potentially contaminated sources.

With only two percent access to sewerage in urban areas, Indonesia's cities rank among the worst in Asia in terms of sewerage and sanitation coverage.

Pollution is widespread on Bali and Java. Women in Jakarta report spending Rp 100,000 per month on boiling water, presenting another significant burden for the poor.

The government has stated its commitment to achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. In order to do so, an estimated 78 million more people will require improved water supplies and 73 million improved sanitation services by 2015, not to mention necessary improvements in service quality for those already with access.

Current levels of investment of only Rp 18,000 per capita a year are insufficient to attain these goals. And sadly, policy responsibilities are fragmented between different ministries, and local utilities that operate and maintain urban water systems remain weak.

Since decentralization was introduced in Indonesia in 2001, local bupati (regency head) have gained responsibility for water supply and sanitation. However, this has so far not translated into improvements in access or service quality, mainly because responsibilities have not been followed by adequate funding mechanisms.

Unsafe drinking water is a major cause of diarrhea, which is the second biggest killer of children under five in the country and accounts for about 20 percent of child deaths annually.

Every year, at least 300 out of 1,000 Indonesians suffer from water-borne diseases, including cholera, dysentery and typhoid.

Economic losses due to inadequate sanitation are huge. When the governor acted to stem the dramatic 30 percent rise in water rates, companies had to renege on their promised investments.

Rural Indonesia has a long history of community-managed water supply services using naturally occurring springs, rainwater and groundwater sources. However, community capacities to sustain such water systems over long periods have tended to be limited.

Past rural water supply and sanitation projects have often not invested sufficiently in building community capacity to plan, implement, operate and maintain services in ways that benefit and satisfy all sections of rural societies, conditions necessary for service sustainability.

Services have often been provided in a top-down manner by agencies external to the community, using public sector or donor funds and contractors answerable to government agencies rather than to the users of services.

Water is one of our most precious commodities, but we don't value it enough.

We cannot afford to wait. Urgent steps to protect Indonesia's water supplies are needed. Energy will be a big issue in the upcoming elections - but unlike oil, there are no alternatives to water.

In fairness, some positive water management initiatives have been instigated by government. But much more must be done. So let's make water an issue at the ballot box.

Jonathan Wootliff is an independent sustainable development consultant specializing in the building of productive relationships between companies and NGOs. He can be contacted at jonathan@wootliff.com

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