Akbar advises promotion of water resources bill

Akbar advises promotion of water resources bill

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

House of Representatives' Speaker Akbar Tandjung defended on
Friday the water resources bill despite protests from some
quarters, and asked lawmakers to inform the public about the
contents of the bill before approving it.

He said the bill was needed to improve the well-being of the
public.

The bill, he said, was in line with a decree issued by the
People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) in 2001 on agrarian reform
and natural resources conservation.

"Water has become a serious problem. If it remains unmanaged,
we may well face a water scarcity some day," Akbar told a plenary
session which marked the closing of the House's 45-day session.

Akbar called on lawmakers to focus on water as a basic human
need, which had to be accessible to the public.

He warned legislators against encouraging the overexploitation
or privatization of water.

In response to public outcry over the deliberation of the
water resources draft bill, State Minister for the Environment
Nabiel Makarim has promised to bring their complaints to the
House.

"We will recommend that the House listen to the public," he
told The Jakarta Post on Thursday in his office.

He praised the public for voicing their objections to the
bill's deliberation, but stopped short of saying whether his
office had any objections to the bill.

The bill is widely protested for what opponents and critics
say its failure to address the interest of the common people.

The deliberation of the bill, which was initially expected to
be completed this week, has been postponed following public
protests.

The House went into recess on Friday and will resume its
session on Oct. 24.

The bill is expected to be passed into law by the end of the
year.

Many have said the bill was drafted with the sole purpose of
commercializing water, as the bill considers water a commodity.
For example, an article in the bill stipulates that a province
may export water with approval from the central government.

Early this year, the Ministry of Settlement and Regional
Infrastructure announced its plan to export water from Riau to
neighboring Singapore.

Critics also say the bill has failed to address issues on
water resources conservation.

Minister of Settlement and Regional Infrastructure Soenarno
had said earlier that conservation issues would be addressed in
other laws, prompting critics to charge that the ministry only
wanted to exploit water, but placed the burden of conservation on
other ministries, such as the environment ministry and forestry
ministry.

Nabiel pointed out that water was a critical issue, as people
could not predict the state of future water supplies.

"We don't know about the future quantity nor quality of water
supplies, they depend on the quality of the environment," he
said, adding that illegal logging remained a major problem in the
country's efforts to protect its environment and thus, its water
resources.

The ministry has announced that Java, Bali and East Nusa
Tenggara have suffered the most from water shortages this year.
Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua still have vast
water supplies of 453.6 billion cubic meters, against 23.7
billion cubic meters of demand.

However, recent data from the environment ministry indicated
that water demand in those provinces will increase to 26.8
billion cubic meters by 2020, while supplies will decline due to
unchecked deforestation.

Data from the forestry ministry this year revealed that
some 43 of 120.35 million hectares of forests have been
devastated by illicit activities, with a degradation rate of 2.1
million hectares per year.

The affected forests are mainly located in Nanggroe Aceh
Darussalam, North Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, West Kalimantan, Central
Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi and Papua.

State Minister Research and Technology M. Hatta Radjasa has
also voiced his objection to an article in the bill, which
stipulates that the private sector may modify the weather through
cloud seeding.

"It might potentially create regional conflicts," he said.