Water access poor, disease widespread
Water access poor, disease widespread
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A variety of water-borne diseases, including diarrhea, typhoid
and hepatitis, are still commonplace in the country due to poor
access to clean water and good sanitation, a government official
has said.
"This situation can only be resolved if there is a better, new
policy on clean water and sanitation," director of water and
sanitation at the Ministry of Health Hening Darpito said during a
media briefing here on Tuesday.
Organized by Ausaid and the National Development Planning
Agency (Bappenas), the briefing was also attended by high-ranking
officials from Bappenas, the Ministry of Resettlement and
Regional Infrastructure and by Australian Deputy Ambassador in
Jakarta Neil Mules.
Mules concurred with Hening, saying that the death of
thousands of Indonesian people from water-borne diseases could be
sharply reduced if water were better managed.
He added that social and economic costs were very high because
of poor access to clean water and good sanitation.
"Despite the existing investment in developing clean water
infrastructure, Indonesian still has difficulty in obtaining
clean water and good sanitation," he said.
The country's report to the ongoing third World Water Forum in
Kyoto, Japan, revealed that 80 percent of the country's 215
million population had no access to piped water.
Poor water management, along with a lack of investment, has
been blamed for the extent of water problems, as Indonesia enjoys
a high water availability, at over 13,000 cubic meters per person
per year.
Hening went on to say that the government was formulating a
policy to increase the number of people with access to clean
water and good sanitation.
He said the policy on clean water and sanitation was a follow-
up of the current program carried out under the cooperation with
Australia and the World Bank.
The planned policy on clean water and sanitation would also be
one of the results of the planned law on water resources.
Mules announced on Tuesday that Australia had given AUS$4
million (US$2.36 million) this year to Indonesia to develop clean
water and good sanitation infrastructure in rural areas.
He also cited, as an example, that over one million people in
West and East Nusa Tenggara provinces had gained access to clean
water with the assistance of Australia.