Grass-roots level: Men tend to a nursery, one of the conservation program activities.

Water is one of the most critical issues as the global climate changes. According to a recent report from the UN, the world will have only 60 percent of its water needs in 2030.

In Indonesia, many regions are facing water shortages, and almost half of the country'€™s 240 million people live with limited access to clean water and sanitation.

A 2014 proposal for the United Nations Development Program from Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change says, '€œMore than 100 million people in Indonesia lack access to safe drinking water, and contaminated water sources have been a leading cause of disease and child mortality in the country.'€

In spite of this, the Indonesian government has been doing very little to tackle the issue.

'€œThe local government doesn'€™t do much to provide its citizens with clean water facilities, leaving the private sector to fill the gap. With the middle classes relying on clean bottled water, many people in the lower income bracket have to boil water to get rid of bacteria. This does not provide solutions to providing people with clean drinking water,'€ said Gunawan Wibisono, a lecturer and hydrogeologist based in Malang, East Java.

While this situation obviously needs the government'€™s attention, many private corporations are setting out their approaches to water scarcity issues through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.

'€œCSR is a good means of giving back to the society. On the issue of water shortage, unfortunately, what I see is that many companies are only paying lip service to their reports. Very few are responding to the challenge.

'€œIn Indonesia, CSR is too narrow to be related to environmental issues. There are so many companies that sell drinking water, but they lack understanding of water itself, what causes the dwindling supplies and how to take measures to become better stewards of this vital resource,'€ Gunawan added.

Meanwhile, CSR activist Jalal expressed his disappointment with the fact that so many companies were competing with communities to use the water.

'€œMany companies use a large amount of shallow water. This is the type of water that the wider public uses. This is dangerous for the companies'€™ relationships with the communities, as the practice can cause drought,'€ Jalal asserted.

Jalal said that there were a number of initiatives that big corporations could take to tackle the issue of water shortage in Indonesia.

Clean up the mess: Residents hand-in-hand use plastic bag to clean up waste in Brantas Lake, Malang, East Java. Many lakes in the city, just like many in other places across the archipelago, are polluted and need local government'€™s attention. JP/Aman Rochman

The first is to maintain a water-balance equation. '€œA company has to be able to measure how much water is taken and inject it back in the forms of conservation efforts, such as tree planting. In other words, the number of trees being planted should compensate the amount of water consumed. In some cases, to avoid competing with the public, there are companies that use deep water, as the public cannot use this type of water. Indeed, maintaining a water-balance equation is an effective way of avoiding drought,'€ he explained.

Next is to provide the public with access to water. This means that all the water injected into the ground should be reserved for the public. '€œA company with good social responsibility will think of how to make the most of the groundwater for public use. There are ways of doing it, one of which is through installing water pump within each of communities,'€ he further explained.

Last but not least is educating the public. '€œA responsible company or good corporate citizen will often come up with ideas such as assisting the public to make biopores and man-made lakes. Both can quicken the process of groundwater absorption,'€ Jalal further said.

Even though Jalal is aware that many companies have not yet made real social contributions, especially in water scarcity issues, he mentioned a few that have implemented bright initiatives.

Aqua is one example. The company is one of those having conducted watershed based integrated water resource management (IWRM) in Kalibeber Village, district of Mojotengah, regency of Wonosobo.

'€œWith Aqua providing this facility, we now have an integrated water resource that ensures the clean water in our village, '€œ said Muhammad Mafruhin of Darsih, an organization that instills awareness of the importance of clean water.

 '€œAqua has since 2006 conducted integrated water resource management (IWRM) based on watershed from the upstream to downstream,'€ said Parmaningsih Hadinegoro, VP corporate secretary, PT. Tirta Investama.

World Water Day, which falls on March 22, has a theme this year of '€œWater and Sustainable Development'€ reminding us that tackling the water crisis in Indonesia needs all parties'€™ commitment and contribution. In other words, the successful implementation of any CSR initiative to mitigate the country'€™s water scarcity problems needs support, from policy and implementation to law enforcement.