Water: Billions of people are dying for it

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Water has unquestionably become the focus of world attention this year. After being named the topic theme for the United Nations International Year, water has been also chosen as the theme for the 2003 World Environment Day (WED), which falls on June 5.

To be precise, the theme given to WED this year is Water -- Two billion people are dying for it! To mark this important day, many countries are holding a number of activities, such as street rallies, bike parades, essay competitions, tree planting and clean-up campaigns.

But the lucky city chosen to be the host of 2003 WED's worldwide celebrations is Beirut, Lebanon, which will hold several events in coordination with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

At home in Jakarta, the government has also been organizing a series of events, such as a workshop on ensuring the conservation of lakes to help ease the water crisis, an environmental exhibition, a bazaar and tree plantings.

Activities celebrating the event will climax on June 5 at the National Monument (Monas) in Medan Merdeka Square with the launch of a green campaign for the capital. At the State Palace, President Megawati Soekarnoputri will present environmental awards to cities which have made a valuable contribution to conserving the environment.

These worldwide activities are just small events to remind everyone that all of us need to safeguard the source of all life on this planet: water.

The UN report said that about 20 percent of the world's population does not have access to safe drinking water, which most people take for granted.

Distribution of water throughout the year is also becoming unbalanced and even triggering natural disasters. According to the WorldWatch Institute and UNEP, the rains in 2002 in Kenya displaced more than 150,000 people, while over 800,000 Chinese were affected by the most severe drought that the country has experienced in over a century.

A report titled Vital Signs 2003 said that land clearing, deforestation and climate change had had the most catastrophic effect on the world's poorest citizens.

State Minister of the Environment Nabiel Makarim also said on Monday that the 2003 WED theme was relevant with the current condition of the country, in which many people are unable to get clean water.

For example, he said, Java suffers from a lack of water for four months out of the year, while Kalimantan has also started to experience a decreasing supply of water.

Ironically, many cities in the country during the rainy season get an abundance of water in the form of floods, a disaster that was never expected to occur, Nabiel added.

His statement has given us a clear picture of just how serious the water problems are that affect people here as the country's report has also said at least 80 percent of Indonesia's 215 million population do not have access to running water, which is supposed to be safe and clean.

Therefore, it seems that the country's abundant amount of water, which according to the UN report release in March stands at 13,381 cubic meters per capita per year, means nothing for most of the population.

In comparison, Singapore, with only 149 cubic meters of water per capita per year, has been able to provide potable water to all of its citizens.

"We are still failing to manage our water properly," he said.

Nabiel blamed the bleak picture of the country's water condition mainly on rampant illegal logging, land conversion and pollution.

He admitted that efforts to curb these illegal activities had been attempted, but illegal logging was the most difficult one to combat.

"This is terrible. How can we manage our water properly if the country's forests are diminishing?" he asked.

With illegal logging, which costs the country about Rp 30 trillion (about US$3.5 billion) a year, the government is continuously conducting operations to stop the masterminds behind the crime.

It has also signed memorandums of understanding with several timber-importing countries in which the latter has agreed not to buy illegal logs from Indonesia.

Reforestation will also be conducted within three million hectares of degraded land at 21 catchment areas commencing this year and to be continued for the next five, with total funding of about Rp 10 trillion.

However, illegal logging is still out of control in this country.

"Give me fresh concrete steps on how to stop illegal logging, but do not propose that we raise our political will. We already have a commitment to maintain the country's forests," he said.

Several non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), demanded the government impose a moratorium on logging to save the forests, but the government disagrees with the idea.

In managing water, the government is also planning to invite private firms to take on a greater role in providing clean water to people, which is better known as a privatization scheme.

The government believed that water treatment should be shifted from only the public good to the public and economic good in order to avoid arbitrary water usage and exploitation and to distribute water fairly from water-rich areas to water-poor areas.

But an NGO alliance led by the Indonesian Forum on Globalization (Infog) criticized the government's plan, saying that privatization of water management would only cause the poor to experience more problems and become more deeply entrapped in poverty.

Infog said that private companies would always be mainly concerned about profit, therefore only the wealthy and those who could afford to pay would be receiving the service.

Therefore, the NGO said, the country should address the water problem very carefully, otherwise there could be a time when the children of this nation have to fight one another just to get enough water to survive.