Privatization of water on the doorstep
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Despite widespread public criticism and opposition to the water resource bill, legislators went ahead with the endorsement of the controversial draft on Thursday.
With the endorsement, water will effectively cease to be a social commodity as the bill transforms water into a commercial good, with the have-nots possibly in for a bleak future of having their rights to clean and affordable water denied, according to some critics.
A.M. Fatwa, a legislator from the National Mandate Party (PAN) who chaired the House plenary meeting that endorsed the draft, attempted to appease critics by saying that the bill could always be amended.
"We have a Constitutional Court to go to and we can always amend the bill; there is nothing set in stone," said Fatwa, a member of the Reform faction, one of two small factions that called for a delay in the endorsement.
The public can contest the validity of laws through the newly formed Constitutional Court, whose credibility has not been tested.
As Fatwa hammered his gavel to mark the bill's endorsement, dozens of activists staged a rally outside the House compound in protest.
Dozens of activists also protested against the bill in front of North Sumatra legislature in Medan.
Earlier, Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), said that the bill did not protect the people's rights to safe and affordable water.
Turning deaf ears to the public's voice, eight of nine factions in the House, including President Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and House Speaker Akbar Tandjung's Golkar Party, gave unreserved support to the bill's endorsement.
Only a few members of the Reform faction opposed the bill by walking out of the plenary meeting.
The bill will automatically take effect in 30 days after its endorsement, with or without the signature of the president.
Critics have opposed the draft, saying it favored capitalists over the poor by treating water as a commercial commodity, paving the way for privatization and higher costs.
Article 4, for example, states that water has social, environmental and economic functions that have not been managed and materialized harmoniously.
Experts have suggested that the term "economic function" would pave the way for privatization and commercialization of the water sector.
Article 9(1) promotes water commercialization with approval from either the central government or regional administrations.
The bill was initiated under pressure by the World Bank through its US$300 million Water Sector Adjustment Loan commitment in 1999.
It is also said to protect the private sector as it shifts much of the risk to the government.
Dozens of drinking water companies --including several foreign-owned firms -- have occupied a number of springs to produce bottled water in the country. The drinking water business takes 4.1 billion cubic meters of water in 2001.
Critics have warned that the government would not be able to control the growth of commercialization in the water sector as the law authorizes either the central government or regional administrations to issue permits to individuals or corporations to commercialize water resources.
"The law keeps on saying that commercialization needs public consultation, but it fails to name who the public is or what agency responsible for that," Nila Ardhiani of the Coalition for People's Access to Water.