Country report on water legitimizes privatization

Country report on water legitimizes privatization

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesia country report prepared for the World Water Forum
only justifies the government's plan to privatize water
management but fails to clarify the implications of
privatization, analysts and activists say.

Yanuar Nugroho of Business Watch Indonesia said on Friday that
despite all the problems associated with water, the report only
endorsed the World Bank's Water Resources Sector Adjustment Loan
(Watsal) scheme, in which water is treated as a commodity.

"The new concept in managing water will treat water as a
commodity. So, those who can pay for water will get water ... the
government fails to explain this to the public," he told The
Jakarta Post.

The country's water report disclosed 80 percent of Indonesia's
population does not have access to piped water, and an annual
investment of Rp 5.1 trillion (US$570) is needed to increase the
population's access to piped water to 40 percent by 2015.

It also said that the government had limited scope for
investment in developing water infrastructure, and, therefore, it
said adjustment of laws and regulations were required to ensure
the sustainability of water resource infrastructure.

Pattimura, from the International NGOs Forum on Indonesian
Development (INFID), said the report described the misery of many
Indonesians but this was used as a pretext for inviting private
firms to manage the country's water resources under the
privatization plan.

Pattimura demanded that the government and House of
Representatives not push ahead with privatization, but rather
consult with people across the country about the water resources
bull to reach the best concept for managing water.

According to Pattimura and Yanuar, the water resources bill
basically invites private firms to take part in managing water,
not only its distribution but also the control of water
resources.

"If water management from upstream to downstream is given to
private firms, what is the position of the general public?" asked
Yanuar.

"But sadly, the government has been concealing the
privatization process under the name of water policy reform."

He warned that in many countries, privatization had failed to
expand water distribution.

Private firms would be responsible only to their shareholders,
and not to the public, and therefore, the public would be left
out in the cold when anything went wrong with the company's
policy, he said.

Yanuar cited the failure of the privatization project in
Jakarta to provide better water for customers. Despite this, the
provincial government was to raise water charges next month for
the third time in five years.

Besides, private firms managing water had to be financed by
the World Bank and other international financial institutions,
meaning that they had not enough money to invest in water
development, he said.

However, the government's plan to legalize the privatization
of water through the water resource bill has drawn protests from
various parties, including non-governmental organizations,
farmers' and consumers' associations.

The farmers' associations, for example, have complained that
the bill would oblige farmers to pay for irrigation water,
something that would definitely increase their production costs.

Environmentalists also said the bill failed to require
environmental impact analyses (Amdal) and social impact analyses
regarding water resources management.

The bill also stipulates that water conservation charges are
obligatory, but fails to say whether some of the money will be
used to improve environmental conditions.

The government has repeatedly denied the accusations, but it
would seem to be failing to give satisfactory explanation to its
opponents.