NGO alliance lashes out at WSSD action plan

NGO alliance lashes out at WSSD action plan

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

An alliance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) expressed
disappointment over the outcome of the recently concluded World
Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South
Africa, saying it was too proindustry at the expense of the
common people.

The alliance urged the government not to implement the
agreements reached at the summit immediately.

"There is not a strong commitment to make development more
poor people-oriented. (In fact) there are hidden agendas to
transform public property into private or industrial property,"
said Longgena Ginting, coordinator of the Indonesian People's
Forum (IPF).

Members of the IPF include the Indonesian Biodiversity
Foundation (Kehati) led by Emil Salim, the Indonesian Forum for
the Environment (Walhi), the International NGOs Forum for
Indonesian Development (INFID) and the World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF).

The summit in South Africa produced implementation plans in
numerous areas, including water, energy, health, agriculture and
biodiversity, and a consensus to help countries achieve
sustainable development at the national level.

On the water issue, Longgena said there was no clause
guaranteeing the commodity would remain a public asset to be
protected from privatization.

"The consensus is only to halve the proportion of people
without access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation," he
said.

Anung Karyadi, also of the IPF, said that with the WSSD
consensus, water would likely be commercialized through
partnerships with private investors.

"Partnership is no different from privatization. We are very
afraid that the private sector will only think about drinking
water, and forget about other utilizations such as irrigation,"
he said.

Anung warned the government not to blindly implement the
consensus on water, which he said would legalize the
privatization of the water sector.

"The government should craft a holistic package on the
utilization of water, and not privatize the sector," he said.

The government has prepared a bill to liberalize and privatize
the water sector. It has already begun the process of
liberalizing the oil and gas, and power sectors.

In the energy sector, Longgena said, the consensus at the
Johannesburg summit had not specified a timetable and the portion
of renewable energy, which was one solution to reduce global
warming.

"It was a backlash against the implementation plan agreed to
at the Bali preparatory meeting last June, which required
countries to use renewable energy for up to 15 percent of their
needs by 2010," he said.

The consensus on energy would only give financial and
technical support to countries for the reduction of the use of
fossil fuels, but would not help increase the use of renewable
energy sources, he said.