Tribespeople marginalized by water bill: Experts

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The bill on water resources, which has been widely criticized for regarding water as a commodity, does not guarantee the rights of ethnic minority groups and poor people to access to clean and affordable water, experts say.

Agus Maryono, a lecturer at the school of technology of Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University, raised his concerns on Monday over the issue during a discussion.

"The bill has failed to guarantee the rights of indigenous tribes for access to water. As minority groups, they will suffer the most if the bill is endorsed," he said.

The bill on water resources recognizes the existence of ethnic minority groups, but articles in the bill fail to protect them, said Agus, pointing to Paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 6.

Paragraph 2 stipulates that the central government and local administration must consider the ancestral rights of indigenous tribes in exploiting water resources, as long as the consideration of tribal interests does not contradict national interest or the law.

However, Paragraph 3 states that the government and local administration need only consider those ancestral rights that were recorded in local regulations.

"The articles are awkward. I am afraid there will be problems in its implementation ... Most indigenous tribes have yet to register with local administrations," Agus said.

There are some 300 officially recognized indigenous tribes, which comprise some 12 million of the nation's population. The figure does not reflect the total number of indigenous tribes in Indonesia, because some tribes live in forests or other remote areas and do not have direct contact with the modern world.

Fellow lecturer Budi Wignyosukarto concurred with Agus, saying that the bill had sidelined the rights of indigenous tribes.

"This is not fair. Some of them have managed their water resources for hundreds of years, but they would not be able to do this if investors exploit their springs," he said.

Desiana V. of Mercubuana University criticized the bill for failing to cover wells, which has been considered groundwater.

She pointed out that the wells of some poor Jakartans had dried out because their wealthy neighbors dug wells hundreds of meters deep, thus diverting all the water from the underground source.

"There should be regulations over the issue, particularly on how deep people can dig their wells," she said.

The experts also said these issues all stemmed from the bill's basic assumption that water was an economic commodity, rather than social commodity.

"This is the root of the problem. They consider water as an economic commodity instead of a fixed asset," Budi stressed, urging the revision of the bill.

Soegijapranata Catholic University economist Wiyanto Hadipuro said he strongly opposed the bill, as it opened the door for authorities to apply a market-based mechanism to water.

"There should be limitations and requirements for water investment," he said.

Gatot Irianto, water specialist at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, said the bill would only provide greater benefits to the private sector and not the public, let alone indigenous people.

"The investors know that water will be scarce in the future. They might have land with springs today, but they don't touch it until water becomes scarce and then, they step in," he said.

Gatot expressed his fears of a possible monopoly of water resources by the private sector. "This is likely to happen, but do people know about it?"

Earlier in the day, legislator M. Rosyid Hidayat of the Reform Faction said the bill might still be revised because the House of Representatives Commission IV on infrastructure and telecommunications affairs had postponed the deliberation until January.

The Commission believed that the bill needed to be promoted more among government institutions and the people.

However, legislators from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction said the delay would not change the bill.

The bill has caused much controversy, not only among the public but also among government ministries, mainly because it considers water as an economic, not a social, commodity.

The government has admitted that the bill's endorsement was connected to the last disbursement of a US$300 million loan under the 1999 World Bank-sponsored Water Resources Sector Adjustment Loan (Watsal).