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House accommodates business aspirations in new water law
The law would require the private sector to allocate a certain amount of funds for water conservation, which would be stipulated separately in a derivative government regulation (PP) on Fund for Water Resources Management Services (BPJSDA) to be issued later. It would also require the commercial use of domestic water resources to get approval from stakeholders in the surrounding area, according to Article 51
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A file picture shows the plenary meeting room at the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the water resources bill, creating a more business-friendly law to support the business climate in Indonesia, turning around a draft considered restrictive by the private sector.
(JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the water resources bill, creating a more business-friendly law to support the business climate in Indonesia, turning around a draft considered restrictive by the private sector.
The law would require the private sector to allocate a certain amount of funds for water conservation, which would be stipulated separately in a derivative government regulation (PP) on Fund for Water Resources Management Services (BPJSDA) to be issued later. It would also require the commercial use of domestic water resources to get approval from stakeholders in the surrounding area, according to Article 51.
The law, which consists of 16 chapters and 79 articles, cancels earlier plans to force companies to allocate 10 percent of their profits for water conservation, to pay certain fees to guarantor banks and to forbid the private sector from accessing drinking water — all of which were previously major sources of headaches for industry players.
“Of course, we accommodated the aspirations of the business sector,” said Lasarus, deputy head of the House’s Commission V, who led the working committee on the water bill deliberations, after a plenary session that passed the bill. “In the tranisition period we will still use the old law as we await the derivative PP to be issued.”
The new law ends four years of legal loopholes in water resources management after the Constitutional Court in 2015 annulled Law No. 7/2004 on water resources and reinstated the old Law No. 11/1974.
The new Water Resources Law was meant to fill in the regulatory loopholes, after one and a half years of deliberations among stakeholders that triggered business players from different sectors, from mining and textiles to industrial parks and water bottlers, to unite under the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) to object to an earlier draft deemed unfriendly to businesses.
Lasarus said the law aimed at better managing domestic water resources to guarantee people’s right to access water while also preventing exploitation for industrial use of water resources.
