World Lake Day 2026: Ministry of Environment Sets Three Restoration Commitments
The Ministry of Environment/Environmental Control Agency (KLH/BPLH) has established three main commitments to accelerate the restoration and protection of lake ecosystems throughout the archipelago, coinciding with the commemoration of World Lake Day 2026 in Depok on Thursday (27/8). The three commitments are strengthening regulations for lake ecosystem protection at national and regional levels, expanding collaborative action across parties and sectors, and mainstreaming the issue of lake conservation into the global water agenda. These commitments represent the ministry’s efforts to secure national water, food, and energy security from the threat of increasingly massive environmental degradation, through the establishment of regulations and upstream-downstream collaborative action.
Carrying the global theme ‘Healthy Lakes, Saving Generations’, this year’s commemoration serves as a crucial momentum for efforts to save inland water ecosystems. Minister of Environment/Head of the Environmental Control Agency, Moh Jumhur Hidayat, stated that Indonesia currently has 2,961 lakes that play a highly strategic role in daily life. ‘Lakes are not merely aquatic landscapes, but sources of life that sustain food security, energy, water, tourism, carbon absorption, micro-climate stabilisation, and serve as centres of community culture,’ said Jumhur.
However, thousands of these lakes are now squeezed by massive environmental degradation. These pressures include damage to water catchment areas and conversion of buffer zones, pollution and eutrophication, massive floating net cage (KJA) activities that exceed carrying capacity, explosions of aquatic weeds, invasion of foreign fish species, and sedimentation that triggers severe shallowing. To address these challenges, the ministry’s first commitment is realised through the optimisation of Ecosystem Protection and Management Plans (RPPE) for 15 National Priority Lakes for the 2025-2029 period, in cooperation with regional governments. This policy focuses on improving water quality, controlling pollution, arranging KJA zoning, rehabilitating water catchment areas, controlling weeds, protecting endemic biodiversity, and aligning regional spatial planning.
Given the hydrological characteristics of lakes, which have very long water residence times, the restoration process requires a long period and consistency of approach from upstream to downstream—this underpins the ministry’s second commitment to expand collaboration across parties and sectors. ‘The lake restoration process requires a long time and demands an integrated upstream-downstream approach that can no longer be postponed,’ said Jumhur. The third commitment, namely mainstreaming the issue of lake conservation into the global water agenda, is in line with the international recognition that Indonesia has obtained.
The Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for Water, Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi, stated that the designation of 27 August as World Lake Day through UN Resolution A/RES/79/142 is the fruit of Indonesia’s long diplomacy, rooted in the hosting of the 10th World Water Forum in Bali. Retno stated that this global recognition must be implemented through tactical work on the ground, and must not stop merely at the ceremonial level. ‘World Lake Day must go beyond mere celebration. This is about real action to protect our lakes. When we protect a lake, we are not only protecting a landscape, but also protecting freshwater reserves, life, and our future,’ explained Retno.
The 2026 World Lake Day commemoration was attended by various ministries/agencies, representatives of foreign countries, regional governments, international institutions (AIIB, UNEP, UNESCO, IFAD, IUCN), academics, communities, and the younger generation—a composition that directly reflects the ministry’s second commitment to expand cross-sector collaboration. Jumhur emphasised that the restoration of national inland water ecosystems demands collective collaboration from all elements of the nation. ‘Saving lakes is not the task of a single ministry alone, but rather a joint effort between the central government, regional governments, academics, the business world, communities, and especially the younger generation,’ concluded Jumhur.