Posted on March 28th, 2008 by admin

Water will be an expensive commodity. Some undaunted people strive on re-investigation of
Undang-Undang (UU) No. 7 Tahun 2004 which regulates water resources. The regulation seems will emerge water monopoly. If it happened, then millions of poor people –which are the most citizenry in Indonesia, my beloved country– will die in thirsty. Water is human’s primary need and one of the human rights.

There is no rule of water resource limitation, what kind of water resource which allowed to be privatized. If the chapters on the government regulation still not clearly detail like that, perhaps the poor farmers must pay for irrigation water. Who knows? The government is tends to make unpredictable and peculiar regulation recently

Water resources privatization can run successfully if there are some non government organizations which have consistently commitment to keep watching the government’s rules. What happened in Indonesia is 80% of 200 water companies are bankrupt because of debts, and then privatization becomes the only choice.

Yet, many parties are worried about the privatization, if it does not accommodate people’s need on water. Companies’ privatization which had bad debt history makes us doubt about the management’s transparency. Moreover, if the most shares are belong to one person.

Tags: expensive water, krisis air, Undang-Undang (UU) No. 7 Tahun 2004, water crisis, water for life, water resources, water resources privatization