Govt slammed for failure to provide clean water

Govt slammed for failure to provide clean water

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) and an urban policy
watchdog blasted on Monday the city administration for its
failure to provide clean water, to which the public also has a
basic right.

"Access to clean water is a basic right of the public and is
protected in the Constitution. The government's failure to
provide it (clean water) is thus a violation against human rights
as well as the Constitution," said Indah Suksmaningsih of YLKI.

Indah was referring to Article 33, Paragraph 3 of the
Constitution, which stipulates that the state controls, among
other things, water, in order to maximize the benefit it brings
to the public.

In reality, Indah remarked, the task of supplying clean water,
which has been passed to private companies, had failed to benefit
the public.

"Public complaints are rife over poor water quality and the
poor services provided (by the water suppliers). That clearly
indicates the administration's failure to fulfill the public's
need for clean water," said Indah.

"Whether or not it is profitable, water supply is an essential
responsibility of the government," Indah asserted.

Widyawati, 50, a resident of Rawabunga, Jatinegara, East
Jakarta, complained that the supply of clean water by the private
sector was not reliable.

"We cannot rely on tap water anymore during the dry season as
the supply is sometimes so little it even stops altogether at
times," she said.

Widyawati said she had installed a water pump last month in
anticipation of water shortages to come.

Meanwhile, urban policy observer of the Jakarta Chapter of the
Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) Tubagus Haryo
Karbyanto lambasted the city administration's discriminatory
policy for providing clean water to the public.

"Many poor people in some areas of North Jakarta, for
instance, have no access to clean water due to the absence of
pipes channeling clean water to their homes," said Tubagus.

Tubagus said the failure had imposed a further burden on
lower-income people as they had to purchase water themselves to
cater for their daily needs.

Tubagus also alluded to allegations over the government's
apparent lack of concern for the public interest by allowing many
high-rise buildings to be erected, depleting ground water and
causing sea water intrusion of the water table.

As the administration appeared to be reluctant to construct
piped water supplies to lower-income people, Tubagus said, no
wonder many alleged that officials of state water supply agency
(PAM) took advantage by selling water to those people.

City-owned water supply firm PAM has two foreign partners, PT
PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) and PT Thames PAM Jaya (TPJ), to
serve the public. Palyja, owned by French firm Lyonnaise des Eaux
serves about 275,000 customers, mostly in the western part of the
city, while TPJ, belonging to British Thames Water International,
provides service mostly to the eastern part of the city.

The association between PAM Jaya and its foreign partners was
controversial from the time the agreement was signed in December
1997.

Palyja and TPJ had earlier cooperated with local firms PT
Kekarpola, controlled by former president Soeharto's eldest son,
Sigit Hardjojudanto, and PT Garuda Dipta Semesta, owned by Sudono
Salim. Following the enforced resignation of Soeharto in 1998,
the local firms then withdrew from the cooperation.