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number of disadvantaged regions in the country are due to receive assistance to install tap-water and sewage facilities.

The Australian and United States governments have pledged to give US$88 million and $10 million, respectively, to some of the country’s most impoverished regions for the construction of the facilities.

The two-year Water and Sanitation Grant program will provide tap water to more than 285,000 low-income households and piped sewers to 9,000 households that come under 120 local governments across the country.

Cities and districts in Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Maluku and Papua will benefit from the program, which is expected to begin in December this year.

An initial program was implemented in 2011 by the Australian Government Overseas Aid Program (AusAID), which provided access to clean water for 77,000 households and sewers for 5,000 households in 39 cities and regencies.

Anne Joselin, unit manager for water and sanitation for AusAID’s Indonesia Program, said the grants would be given to the local governments for each new water and sewerage connection after verifying that the households had received the water for a minimum of three months, and that the recipients were satisfied with the service.

“The water and sanitation program comprises output-based grants that reward local governments that pre-finance their own local water companies to increase water distribution and sewage networks to local communities,” Joselin said on Thursday.

According to Mieke Kencanawulan, a representative from the drinking water development directorate at the Public Works Ministry, cities and regencies that want to participate in the program should first submit complete data of the low-income households in their areas.

“After the household data is verified, the PDAM [provincial water company] will construct a water connection using local government funds,” Mieke said. “Should the connection go well during the first three months, the local government will be reimbursed with grant money from the agencies.”

As part of its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the government aims to achieve 68 percent of piped water coverage in the country’s urban areas and 20 percent in rural areas by 2015.

Data from the Public Works Ministry shows that only 51 percent of the country’s total households enjoyed good quality water last year, a 9 percent increase from 2011.

Jim Coucouvinis, technical director of water and sanitation for AusAID’s Indonesia Infrastructure Initiative (IndII), said that one of the obstacles to successfully running the program was in ensuring that the information about the grants made its way to the local governments.

“Another challenge is to develop trust in the PDAMs so that local governments invest their money in the PDAMs to build the water connections,” Coucouvinis said. (nad)