Disputed water bill stays unchanged

Disputed water bill stays unchanged

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta

Despite considerable public opposition, the House of
Representatives began on Thursday to review the controversial
bill on water resources but early indications appear as if there
is little commitment to make significant changes into the bill.

In the meantime, President Megawati Soekarnoputri called on
all sides to give special attention to the contentious bill to
prevent a water crisis in the future.

House Commission III with deals with agricultural issues made
minor changes to the bill, which was scheduled to be endorsed
earlier this week, in its additional deliberations with the
Director General for Irrigation at the Resettlement and Regional
Infrastructure Ministry Roestam Sjarief.

Erwin Pardede, a commission member, said his commission was
looking over the contentious articles but made no major changes
to accommodate the public's opposition.

He said the commission and the government decided to review
the draft law "and both sides approved certain (contentious)
articles."

He conceded that both the commission and the government were
still divided over one article in particular, as it stipulates
the establishment of a regulatory body to issue water permits.

The bill, designed by the Cabinet, has met strong opposition
from numerous sides, including local non-governmental
organizations, which accused the government of commercializing
water resources rather than preserving it and allowing more
access to a majority of the people for daily consumption and
farming.

The bill is meant to regulate the issuance of permits for
commercial water use and household/office use, but it falls short
of preventing the possible monopolization of water.

In addition, the bill also requires farmers to request a
permit (for a fee) from the authorities to use irrigation water
for farms.

Budi Santosa Wignyosukarto, the program coordinator from
Gadjah Mada University, expressed disappointment that the House
and the government had not made significant changes to the
controversial sections.

"They've merely reworded some bits with softer words on the
controversial articles but the substance has not been changed,"
he said on Thursday.

He said that in the absence of significant change, the bill
would only benefit wealthy people who had access to water.

Fellow scholar F. Wijanto Hadipuro from the Sugijapranata
Catholic University in Semarang, Central Java, concurred, saying
that the government would have no mechanism at its disposal to
control market-based water management.

He warned against a possible cartel of private companies who
would control all the water if the House and the government
approved the bill.

"The water resources are quite likely to be monopolized since
it will require a large investment. Without stern regulations,
the government would not be able to guarantee access to clean and
affordable water for the people who earn their living on
traditional farms.

"I am not sure the government will have any control," Wijanto
remarked.

A number of NGOs have accused the government of being
indirectly pressured by multinational corporations to endorse the
law so they could invest in the water commercialization in the
country.

They claim that both the government and the House were being
pushed by such companies, as well as the World Bank, to endorse
the bill in October so that the World Bank could disburse the
remaining US$150 million from the agreed $300 million. The World
Bank disbursed the first $150 million recently to finance the
water reform program, including the privatization of water
resources.

Meanwhile, President Megawati called on the public to preserve
water to prevent another crisis next dry season.

Everyone has his/her own obligation to preserve water
resources, especially in their daily consumption, she said in
Bogor on Thursday.

"We should not wait for a water crisis to hit us, before we
being conserving," she stressed, warning of another major water
crisis in the country in the next decade, if people failed to
conserve.