Deliberation begins on new water bill

Deliberation begins on new water bill

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government and the House of Representatives have begun
deliberating a bill on water resources, which they claim will
ensure public participation in determining the use of the
resource as well as protecting people's right to water.

Minister of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure Soenarno
said the bill assumed the public deserved a role in deciding the
planning, execution, supervision and evaluation of the
utilization of water.

He said, for example, that the bill detailed the need to
establish a water resource council made up of ministries and
other stakeholders, which would recommend policy and strategy on
water resources.

These councils would be established at the national,
provincial and regency levels, according to draft bill.

If passed into law, the bill on water resources would replace
Law No. 11/1974 on water.

Soenarno also said the government hoped to use the bill to
protect the right of the powerless to access water; a right that
is sometimes lost through the exploitation of the resource.

"The protection will combine social, economic and
environmental values, as water is a basic human need and it must
be accessible to everyone," he said.

According to the minister, the bill clearly distinguishes
between the functions of the central government and regional
governments in handling water resources, in accordance with
regional autonomy.

"The role of the central government will focus on water across
provinces, and provincial administrations on water beyond the
borders of regencies," he said.

The bill also ensures water conservation and threatens
penalties to those who harm or pollute water resources, he said.

Sulaiman N. Sembiring, executive director of the Institute of
Natural Resources Law, hailed the bill, saying it was more
comprehensive than Law No. 11/1974.

However, he said the draft bill did not do enough to
accommodate the voices of local stakeholders.

"Without the participation of local people expressing their
problems, the bill will be fine in writing but unrealistic in
practice. So don't discuss it only in Jakarta, but go to the
provinces and regencies," he told The Jakarta Post.

Sulaiman also warned that the bill could provide private firms
the opportunity to control water resources.

"We fear water resources will fall under the control of a few
big firms and people will find it more and more difficult to
access water," he said.

Regarding the penalties laid out in the draft, Sulaiman said
those who damaged water resources should get more than a three-
year jail sentence and a Rp 300 million fine, as stipulated in
Article 93 of the bill.

"The environmental destruction resulting from the disruption
of water resources is difficult to measure. The punishment is too
light," he said.

Meanwhile, Riki F. Ibrahim, senior official at the Indonesian
Geothermal Association, said the bill failed to clearly define
water resources, thus raising the potential for dispute with
other rulings and draft laws.

Citing an example, he said the bill on water resources
conflicted with the bill on geothermal resources when it came to
taxes, which would cause legal uncertainty among
businesspeople.

"Under the geothermal bill, certain taxes are imposed on
geothermal businessmen, who will also be subject to taxes
according to the water resource bill.

"This water resources bill needs an overhaul before being
endorsed," he said.