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Minister of Public Works Guarantees Foreign Private Sector Will Not Dominate Water Resources
Thursday, 21 July, 2005 | 05:52 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The Indonesian government has guaranteed that there will be no privatization of water resources in the implementation of Law No. 7/2004.

On the contrary, this Law will control the role of the private sector in managing water.

“It is not true that this Law has been designed for the privatization of water resources. The Law was designed for private sector participation because such participation has existed for quite a long time but as yet is not controlled,” said Minister for Public Works Djoko Kirmanto.

On Wednesday (19/07), the Constitutional Court refused a legal request for a material examination as proposed by the Indonesian Environment Association (Walhi) and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on Law No.7/2004 over Water Resources.

The requesting organizations suspect that this Law has created opportunities for water resources privatization and neglected the public interest as regards water.
According to Kirmanto, the Law regulates that every river region unit (SWS) can only be managed by State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) or Regional-Owned Enterprises (ROEs).

Kirmanto cited the Citarum river, managed by PT Jasa Tirta, and the Berantas river, managed by PT Jasa Tirta Satu.

Regarding the involvement of PT Palyja in the management of the Jakarta Drinking Water Company (PDAM), Kirmanto stated that the cooperation was only established as regards one aspect, for drinking water.

“PT Palyja is not the one managing the river region unit (SWS). It’s only part of the private sector privatization in managing the clean water,” he said.

Kirmanto admitted that he did not know about the cooperation process between PT Palyja and Regional Water Company (PDAM) because the cooperation was carried out before the privatization of water resources was established.

“With this Law, I guarantee that such things will not exist again,” he stated.

Several private sector parties that already have cooperation contracts with SOEs or ROEs or those conducting drinking water management will not suffer any losses in reference to Law No.7/2004 because the Law stipulates that issued of water resources management licenses would still prevail until the end of each contract.

However, if the license ends and the companies wish to renew the license, they will be subject to Law no.7/2004 and Government Regulation No.16/2004 on drinking water.
“PT Palyja must adhere to this Government Regulation,” said Kirmanto. (Khairunissa-Tempo News Room)