Water an economic commodity: Minister
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A minister has insisted that besides its social impact, water is an economic commodity that should be included in the controversial bill on water resources.
Minister of Settlements and Regional Infrastructure Soenarno said on Friday that the government was trying to produce legislation on water resources because water was an economic commodity that had started to become scarce.
Compared with Papua, he said, where water had yet to acquire an economic value, water in Java had become scarce and therefore its utilization had to be controlled otherwise most people would have inadequate access to potable water.
"Due to its scarcity, water is considered to have an economic value. Consequently, it needs to be treated as a valuable commodity. (People might say ) water is God-given, why should we pay for it? However, to turn raw water into drinking water requires facilities and investment," he argued.
The amended 1945 Constitution stipulates that water must be controlled by the state; it also protects people's social and economic welfare, he said, referring to cooperatives, plus state- owned and regionally-owned enterprises.
However, Soenarno said, the bill would create a mandate for water management for the government, which, in turn, might invite private investment, in a bid to provide access to clean water for all.
"Regionally-owned enterprises are a burden on the government," Soenarno remarked, referring to most regionally-owned tap water companies.
The government's stance that water is an economic commodity contradicts a variety of UN covenants and international agreements that view access to water as a fundamental human right.
During the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto in March, the UN emphasized the need to promote people's rights to water and encouraged delegates to include an explicit reference to water as a human right in a ministerial declaration made at the conference.
The state, consequently, is obliged to ensure that all citizens have access to water.
Many non-governmental organizations have said that the establishment of a bill on water resources is connected to the Water Resources Sector Adjustment Loan (WATSAL) from the World Bank, worth a total of US$300 million.
On Friday, dozens of protesters staged a rally outside the Jakarta Stock Exchange Building, where the bank has its offices, demanding the bank not intervene in deliberations on the ongoing bill on water resources.
The scheme requires that Indonesia reform its legislation on water, including to allow the privatization of water.
Soenarno conceded that the bill, which has met with opposition from many quarters, had something to do with the WATSAL scheme.
"But there are also others, not only WATSAL, with an interest in the bill," he said.
The last disbursement of some $150 million from the bank is expected to be made this year, if the government manages to enact the bill this December.
Soenarno is listed as vice chairman of the Indonesian government's WATSAL Task Force, according to the World Bank project document issued in 1999.
The document stipulates, "with the advent of the fiscal crisis, the World Bank proposed in April 1998 a program of requisite sector reforms that should be supported under a WATSAL, which would be part of the overall macroeconomic adjustment lending that had evolved as the Bank's revised Country Assistance Strategy. This proposal was accepted by the government of Indonesia."