T

he Public Works Ministry will cooperate with the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN Habitat) to achieve the government'€™s target to provide all Indonesians with access to clean water and sanitation and better public housing by 2019.

'€œWe are here with UN Habitat to garner recommendations to achieve our target of 100 percent access to clean water and sanitation as well as zero percent slum areas. We welcome the partnership with all stakeholders in order to find a solution,'€ the Public Works Ministry'€™s Cipta Karya director general, Imam S. Ernawi, said during a media conference on Friday.

UN Habitat executive director Joan Clos said that the government had shown its commitment to achieving the target, even though a lot of challenges remained to achieve the target of 100 percent access to clean water and sanitation as well as zero percent slum areas.

'€œI'€™m impressed at the advances on Millennium Development Goals, mainly in water supply, that has already [...] reached 70 percent. This is really outstanding. Also the sanitation figures are very impressive,'€ Clos said.

However, he said that Indonesia still had to overcome several environmental challenges, not only increases in sea levels but also the issue of land acquisition.

'€œAlso urban congestion, urban inequality, all of these need to be confronted by society in general, the public sector and also the private sector. This is why we are strategically associated with the ministry,'€ Clos said.

According to the ministry'€™s National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), clean water infrastructure will require Rp 274.8 trillion (US$23.3 billion) while sanitation projects will cost Rp 385.3 trillion to achieve the target of 100 percent access to clean water and sanitation as well as zero slums by 2019.

Imam said, however, that the recent budget cut would affect the ministry'€™s plan in achieving the target.

'€œThe recent budget cut will inevitably affect our plan. Therefore, we are encouraging the private sector as well as the public to participate in realizing the target. For now, the government, be it the central government or regional administrations, still provides up to 60 percent of the budget needed to achieve the target,'€ Imam told reporters.

Based on Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data, access to clean water was 67.73 percent in 2013, while for sanitation it was 59.71 percent.

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, up from 36 percent in 1990. Indonesia increased clean water access to 67 percent in 2013 from 37 percent in 1993, as well as access to sanitation from 24 percent in 1993 to 59 percent in 2013.

During the meeting with UN Habitat, the ministry signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on preparing an agenda for the third UN Habitat Conference in 2016.