T

he government will need more than Rp 660 trillion (US$57.2 billion) within the next five years in a bid to provide all Indonesians with access to clean water and sanitation by 2019.

According to the National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), clean water infrastructure will need Rp 274.8 trillion while sanitation projects will take Rp 385.3 trillion.

The Public Works Ministry'€™s Cipta Karya director general, Imam S. Ernawi, said on Tuesday that securing the funds would be one of the toughest challenges.

From the total Rp 274.8 trillion budget needed to support the clean water access, Imam said that around Rp 90.7 trillion or 33 percent would come from the state budget.

'€œIn order to meet the investment target, we need full support from the regional administrations and the PDAM [state water company],'€ Imam said, adding that the regional administration was expected to allocate Rp 98.9 trillion or 36 percent to the clean water projects, while the state water companies would have to allocate around Rp 33 trillion.

However, he said, from around 300 state water companies across the country, there were around 157 PDAM deemed '€œunhealthy'€, because the water rate was below their production cost.

However, he said, the ministry was upbeat that the country would meet the national target and surpass the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) of 68.87 percent of the population having access to drinking water and 62.41 percent of the population with access to sanitation by 2015.

'€œBased on the data from the Central Statistics Agency [BPS], access to clean water was 67.73 percent in 2013, while for sanitation it was 59.71 percent,'€ Imam told reporters in a press conference on Tuesday.

'€œWe are confident that we can at least attain 70 percent access to clean water by next year,'€ he said.

Imam said that access to clean water in the Asia-Pacific region in 2010 was 91 percent, increasing from 73 percent in 1990. Meanwhile, access to sanitation was 58 percent in 2010 from 36 percent in 1990.

'€œIndonesia has successfully increased clean water access to 67 percent in 2013 from 37 percent in 1993, as well as the access to sanitation from 24 percent in 1993 to 59 percent in 2013,'€ Imam said.

'€œThe growth of access here is higher than the growth in the Asia-Pacific, as the country saw an average increase of 1.5 percent per year, compared to one percent per year in Asia-Pacific,'€ Imam said.

Imam said that the ministry had allocated Rp 10 trillion from the state budget for clean water and sanitation this year.

'€œWe allocated around Rp 8 trillion last year. So it'€™s gradually increased,'€ Imam told reporters on Tuesday.

Separately, the ministry'€™s director for clean water development Danny Soetjiono said the ministry had prepared programs to expedite efforts to meet the target, including a program to increase drinking water access for low-income people, as well as a program to further develop water-saving.