New draft regulation may require farmers to pay for water
New draft regulation may require farmers to pay for water
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government has sparked controversy by proposing a regulation
that will oblige farmers to pay for irrigation water, a move that
could significantly raise agricultural production costs.
Article 7(5) of the draft government regulation, a copy of
which was made available to The Jakarta Post, states water
charges for agricultural land will be decided based on the
irrigation fees paid by farmers to their local agricultural
associations.
Water charges would be payable by farmers for using water
sourced from irrigation systems, while irrigation fees would be
payable for the maintenance of irrigation infrastructure.
The extra charges would increase production costs for millions
of farmers. Some 7.1 million hectares of agricultural land is
dependent on irrigation out of a total of 11 million hectares of
farming land across the country.
At present, only tap water consumers, power suppliers and
other profit-oriented users must pay water charges.
The government expects to complete the draft regulation as
soon as the House of Representatives endorses the water resources
bill, which is currently being deliberated.
Both the government and the House have repeatedly maintained
that farmers would not be charged for the water they use to
irrigate their land.
The possibility of a U-turn has been suspected by some non-
governmental organizations given that the water resources bill
adopts the concept of full-cost recovery for irrigation
developments.
The NGOs have also questioned the need for an article in the
water resources bill that requires agricultural enterprises,
including plantations, fish farms, fishing companies and
livestock rearers to pay water charges.
Nugroho, from the Farmers Initiative for an Ecological
Livelihood and Democracy (Field), said on Thursday that the draft
government regulation clearly reflected the government's
intention to charge all water users.
"We know the new concept legalizes full-cost recovery for
water developments, meaning farmers must pay for all the water
they use to cover the development of irrigation infrastructure.
The draft government regulation has been created to clearly
legitimize the concept as the water resources bill is open to
interpretation," he said.
Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution stipulates that water and
the natural resources contained in the earth must be managed by
the state so as to ensure the optimum well-being of the people.
Nila Ardhianie of the Indonesian Forum on Globalization
(INFOG) warned of social chaos if the government pushed ahead
with the regulation.
She said that farmers in South Africa, for example, had
destroyed infrastructure to get water as they could not afford to
pay their water bills.
"The government must realize that water is not a commodity. It
is a gift from God like the air, so that everyone must have
unhindered access to it," she said.
Given the new concept, she said, only powerful economic
sectors would benefit.
She called on the government to hold a transparent public
debate on the water resources bill and its executory regulations.
However, Adi Sarwoko Soeronegoro, the director of water
resources utilization at the Ministry of Resettlement and
Regional Infrastructure, and Soedarmanto, the head of the
institutions' division, said the article would only be
implemented when farmers had sufficient financial capacity.
Soedarmanto said the article might not be implemented even 10
years after the regulation came into effect.
However, this is not apparent from the draft government
regulation, even though it guarantees a grace period before the
levying of water charges.
When questioned about this, Soedarmanto said that the
government would further study the draft regulation.