House completes water bill deliberation in days

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives working committee has finished its deliberations on the controversial water resources bill in three days, enraging observers who say that legislators have ignored criticism of the bill.

"The working committee has deliberated the bill, which is currently being reviewed by the special team," chairman of the working committee Erman Soeparno said over the weekend.

The House assigned Commission IV on infrastructure to set up a working committee and special team to deliberate the bill, which has sparked controversy in recent months.

The committee was tasked with deliberating the content of the bill, while the special team has dealt mainly with the bill's wording.

Erman, of the National Awakening Party, said that the working committee needed just three days because it only deliberated several articles relating to water exports, a regulatory body and irrigation.

The committee started its deliberations on Dec. 3 and completed them on Dec. 5, while the special team is expected to finish its job on Monday.

Erman said that after the deliberations, the bill will be sent to a plenary meeting for approval on Dec. 19.

Meanwhile, fellow legislators Erwin Pardede and Karimun, both of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, anticipated no significant changes at the plenary.

"Legislators on the working committee are representatives of factions," Karimun said.

Erwin added that the faction meeting would likely not make any changes because most legislators agreed with the bill.

Separately, observers lashed out at the House for ignoring public opposition to the bill, which, they say, had many controversial articles.

"I'm very disappointed. They (the legislators) haven't changed even a word, although they sought our responses," said Budi Wignyosukarto from Gadjah Mada University.

He regretted that the House and government offer to discuss the bill with the public was only a token gesture.

"I haven't seen any goodwill from legislators. They don't care about the future of the country. This is about water -- something every human being needs," Budi said in disappointment.

Instead of listening to public criticism of the bill, Budi said, some legislators used the discussion with farmers and others for political purposes.

"They acted as if they were listening, but I heard they told farmers not to vote for parties that did not favor their interests," Budi said.

Nila Ardhiani, of the Indonesia Forum on Globalization (Infog), shared the same opinion as Budi, saying the House had failed to listen to public criticism of the bill during a series of discussions held with people across the country.

Environmentalists, experts and non-governmental organizations have repeatedly criticized the bill for treating water as an economic rather than social commodity.

The House earlier asked the working committee to postpone deliberations on the bill due to public opposition concerning the commercialization of the water sector, ordering the committee to carry out more public participation during the delay.

The House has, since then, conducted a series of roadshows across the country. The Ministry of Settlement and Regional Infrastructure, which strongly supported deliberations on the bill, even took two full pages in Kompas daily, the most widely read newspaper in Indonesia, to publish all 96 articles of the bill.

In the advertisement, it asked readers to send their input to the ministry. Ultimately, only three readers responded to the call.

Many have alleged that the hasty deliberations on the bill are connected with the last disbursement of a US$300 million loan, under the World Bank-sponsored Water Resources Sector Adjustment Loan (WATSAL).

Based on the WATSAL scheme, the World Bank will disburse the loan in three stages. The first $50 million was disbursed in June 1999 and the second disbursement, amounting to $100 million?, was made at the end of 2001.

The remaining $150 million will be disbursed once Indonesia completes its water reform initiative, which includes the enforcement of a water resources law that allows for privatization of the water sector.

The World Bank has indicated that it may not disburse the third and last tranche of WATSAL due to possible failure by Indonesia to produce a bill on water resources that met a 1999 commitment on water resources policy reform.

The government made a commitment with the World Bank on WATSAL in 1999, when the government faced severe financial difficulties due to the prolonged economic crisis.

According to the scheme, Indonesia had to reform its legislation on water to allow for its privatization.

The World Bank has denied accusations over its possible involvement in proposals to bring in huge foreign water companies to invest in the nation's water supply sector.