TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government must revise the water resources bill proposed by the House of Representatives (DPR) last week. The bill has many loopholes that may endanger water sovereignty.
The bill must not ignore the desire for water to be controlled by the state and utilized for the maximum possible benefit of the people. This should be the driving principle for everything covered by the bill.
Unfortunately, the bill provides too much of an opportunity for the buying and selling of water, and not enough guarantees of the peoples right to water. For example, the bill states that water is to be managed by state-owned enterprises or regional government-owned businesses for business purposes, while private companies may participate through partnerships with these bodies. No mechanism for strict monitoring (is mentioned), which means there are opportunities for collusion and corruption. A mechanism must exist to prevent business practices that neglect public interest.
The bill even makes it easy to export water. For example, Article 49 paragraph 1 only states that the use of water by other countries is banned except for humanitarian reasons. But the article offers no further explanation, meaning it can potentially be exploited for business interests under the guise of humanitarian assistance. The bill only states that more detailed provisions will be specified in a government regulation. Points that are open to multiple interpretations must be made more clear and explicit to prevent abuse.
Another major failing is that the bill does not regulate the use of groundwater. Large-scale exploitation of groundwater invites disaster. Jakarta is threatened by submersion due to abrasion. Almost half of Jakartans have water pipes and have dug wells illegally. Many commercial buildings in the capital also extract groundwater.
Even factories use groundwater as they please. In the Sukabumi Regency, 110 companies use groundwater, and of these, 20 are bottled water producers.
This kind of practice is clearly a threat to water resources, yet the bill offers no protection for groundwater. The government should have concerned itself with regulating this point before addressing the buying and selling of water, especially since the bill states that groundwater may be managed for commercial activities. The article on the privatization of water must be removed because it is a threat to the people's access to water.
Groundwater should only be used to fulfill the peoples demand drinking and clean water. Take a look at India. In 2011, the Indian government decreed that the sole use of groundwater must be for the public and banned exploitation by companies through water privatization. India's policy is worth emulating.
We must use water wisely. We do not want to suffer the same fate as Cape Town, South Africa, now threatened with an insufficient supply of water despite having won several international awards for water management. The main reasons for the water problem are population growth, rivers declining water levels and poorly anticipated droughts.
A major city like Jakarta needs to be careful. The population continues to increase, and several reservoirs have run dry. The fact that the city is sinking at an average rate of 5-15 centimeters per year is an indication of diminishing groundwater reserves. This is a warning, and the Law on Water Resources must anticipate the threat of water shortage.
Read the full article in this week's edition of Tempo English Magazine
