Water (not) for All
My first amazement as I first arrived in Sydney was knowing that people can drink directly from the tap. At my first days staying here in Sydney, I was a bit hesitant to drink water directly from the tap. It was a bit odd for me, having spent years of my lifetime in Indonesia where tap water is not drinkable. If you go to Jakarta, you need to buy bottled water for drinking purpose because the water from piped-water system is not safe to drink. In many cases (especially in poor area), the water pipe network is not available. Sometimes, the network is available but the service is not reliable (water stop flowing frequently).
Yes, drinking water is a luxury in Jakarta. Formal water service is only available for those who can afford and is failed to serve the poor area. Taking it further, clean water is a luxury in the slums area, let alone the drinking water. The most obvious case to understand the magnitude of clean water scarcity in Jakarta's poor area is along Ciliwung Riverbank. Ciliwung is regarded as one of the most polluted rivers in the world. However, the riverbank dwellers used the Ciliwung water for their daily needs (washing clothes, bathing, etc.), Interestingly, they also use the river as the dump site for their household waste and toilet waste (the final product of human digestion system). This obviously led to a lot of health problems.
Polluted water used for washing and bathing (lisasuroso.wordpress.com)
Originally, water supply system in Jakarta was operated by government-owned company. Miss-management and corruption were blamed for low performance of water provision. In 1997, water privatization was initiated to "solve" the issue. Eventually, the privatization did not work. In fact, the privatization contributed to worsen the situation. Water became more scarce and more expensive. Three fundamental problems were found in the implementation of water privatization: governance problems (corruption still existed). regulatory problems and performance problems. I will not go much into politics. The bottom line is that we need collective awareness and commitment of all stakeholders to fix this problem. The following short documentary (less than 10 minutes) gives a glimpse on the water privatization problems in Jakarta.
Through the Empty Tap (Jakarta Water Privatization) - (AMRTA Institute 2011)
Another documentary shows that the complexity of water politics in Jakarta goes down to the grass-root level. In some cases, the pipe water are being "sabotaged" by irresponsible individuals who takes profit by collecting the piped-water and reselling the water to the community.
The Failure of Jakarta Water Privatization
The failure of water privatization in Jakarta can be traced back to the failures contributed by both the private sector and government sector. The private sector failed to deliver better service and at the same time the government side failed to establish effective regulations to ensure the public interests. The privatization also failed to create competition due to corruption and nepotism as a result of very limited number of operating companies (only two private companies). In the end, they cooperate to maximize their profit rather than competing to deliver better service.
Going back to my first amazement on Sydney water system and quality, the amazement eventually turned into sadness and empathy knowing that in my home country (and in many other parts of the world), a very contrast situation is happening. This post is the least I can do to remind people that we still have a lot of work to do.
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