Activists say no to water privatization

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A group of private citizens expressed wariness on Thursday over the government's plan to privatize water resources management, citing that such a measure could hamper the public's access to fresh and affordable water.

"The government's plan to give a large stake to a private firm in managing water will adversely affect people, especially the poor," said Nila Ardianthie, coordinator of a group calling itself the Coalition for People's Rights of Water Resources in a discussion with the media.

Nila was responding to the government's privatization plan that was included in a draft bill on water resources which could be sent to the House of Representatives by the end of this month.

The coalition was said to group some 30 non-governmental groups including the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) and the Indonesian Forum on Globalization (INFOG).

Nila said it would not be good because the government's privatization plan was consistent with World Bank (WB) recommendations under the Water Resources Sector Adjustment Loan (WATSAL).

WATSAL, Nila said, was one of WB's programs which obliges the government to build necessary infrastructure by linking up with private companies, due to the fact that many government-run utilities continued to be inefficient and wasteful, or even corrupt. She added that it would require an amendment to the law.

While similar WB privatization programs have been very successful in other countries, the groups feared that corruption was so deep-rooted here, that it would just be another opportunity for companies to take advantage of the poor.

Sameer Dossani, another activist from the United States-based Citizens Network on Essential Services said water was closely related to human rights.

"Access to affordable water is part of human rights, the government must ensure that all citizens have access to affordable water," Dossani said.

Dossani remarked that many residents were forced to drill their own wells to get water, but in some cases, the water was polluted.

"Around 2.4 million people a year die of diseases resulting from unclean and unsafe water," said Dossani, without distinguishing which portion of that number were victims of unclean well water.

Dossani also remarked that water resources management was a potential issue which could cause social conflict.

"That's why issues on water resources management must be handled democratically by involving greater participation from the public. Otherwise, social conflict would be inevitable," he said.

As the privatization policy may possibly endanger the public's access to affordable water, the coalition urged the government to drop the new bill.

Access to safe drinking water was among the commitments agreed upon by the Indonesian government and others at the recently concluded Earth Summit in South Africa.