I want to know more <Water & Water Environment>


I want to know more <Water & Water Environment>
About the interim report of "Information provision series on water  supply in Indonesia"
                                                                JISCOWAPINDO Secretariat

JISCOWAPINDO strives to collect information on water supply inIndonesia, and has shared information with all members through the  website. The material was collected and searched by SecretaryTakashi Kojima in collaboration with members Takao Tadokoro and  Toshio Masuoka on the Internet using the keywords "Indonesia ANDWater Supply", "Indonesia AND Water Environment" and English "Indonesia Water Supply". This is a summary of the latest articles thatmay be helpful. Serialization on the website began in April 2018,  and atotal of 130 pieces of information were posted in the two years (25times) until April 2020.

When considering Indonesia, one must be aware of the characteristicsof the land, the population and economic development as a premise.The country of Indonesia is composed of 13,466 large and small islandsthat straddle the equator, spans 5,110 km east and  west, and has thelargest number of islands in the world (as an island country).

During the 75 years since its independence in 1945 to the presentday, Indonesia has grown significantly. The population at  independencewas 45 million, but by 1970 it had grown to 100 million. Over the next30 years, this number more than doubled to reach 238 million in 2010.The growth rate for the period 2000-2010 was 1.49%. The currentpopulation is the fourth largest in the world with more than 264 millionpeople.
Economic growth was strong. Despite the political changes andeconomic challenges of the Asian financial crisis of 1998/99 and  population growth, GDP(gross domestic product per capita) rose from$ 2,952 in 2002 to $ 4,394 in 2008, which was an increase of almost50% in six years. (2018 value is 3,893 USD)

Also, as in most Asian countries, increased economic activity in urbanareas has driven Indonesia's economic growth. This caused a  large-scale migration from rural to urban areas, and this rapid urbanizationdoubled the city's population from 56 million to about 128 millionbetween 1990 and 2010. The stress on water resources in the urbanareas of the two major islands of Java and Sumatra, where  more than80% of the current population lives, is particularly high. As a result ofthe significant increase in water demand, water  demand  exceedsnatural availability of supply. Similarly, problems such as pollution,landscape erosion, and damage to groundwater are  increasing. (ADB2012 data complemented by Wikipedia)

Therefore, in order to think about Indonesia, it is necessary to captureIndonesia from a compound perspective. Of the articles dealt  with inthe "Indonesia Water Supply Information Series", 75 articles includesome regional information. Twenty-four of them cover   contentrelated to Jakarta, while others cover cities such as Bandung, Medan,Semarang, Tangerang, and Bogor, and have spread to Bali, Kalimantan,and Sulawesi. The water pollution of the Citarum River and theproblems of Lake Toba are also taken up. It also covers  the presentconditions and issues, the causes and conditions of land subsidence inJakarta, the national budget for infrastructure  development and theproject budget of international aid agencies.
In this way, 130 pieces of information cover a wide range of fields, butif you expand your view to the source (there are many links to URLs),you can see the depth of issues in Indonesia.

Here, I would like to introduce these information by topic(inJapanese only but click top bar).
(1) Progress from privatization of water supply in Jakarta toremunicipalisation
(2) Decision and background of Indonesia's capital relocation
(3) Land subsidence problem in Jakarta
(4) Current status of water use in Jakarta
(5) Water pollution of the Citarum River and countermeasures
(6) Drought and water shortage problems
(7) Interest in Indonesia from the world
(8) Current status and issues of PDAM
(9) National budget for infrastructure development and project budgetof international aid agencies
(10) Demand for water purifiers
(11) Plastic tube market
(12) Other topics
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Editor's note
The editor personally experienced two long-term assignments inIndonesia in the 1980s and 1990s respectively for two years. Theformer was the heyday of Suharto, where President Suharto focusedon the development of infrastructure to support the backbone of thenational economy and continued stable economic growth, and thelatter was the ending stage of the president, and variouscontradictions became apparent. It was finally time for Suharto toretire president.

After the Asian currency crisis of 1997, a wave of democratization anddecentralization struck, and the political economy was temporarilyconfused in Indonesia, but under President Yudhoyono, who waselected by the first direct election in 2004, Indonesia is  again back ontrack stabilizing the economic growth. Since the mid-2000s, per capitaincome has also improved, making Indonesia the only G20 memberstate in ASEAN in 2008.

In this interim compilation of the "Indonesia Water Supply InformationSeries," I revisited a total of 130 pieces of information posted on thewebsite for two years from April 2018 to March 2020. I was impressedagain with the recent remarkable economic development and themaintained diversity of Indonesia through the work this time.

By the way, according to a poll on Japan in seven ASEAN countriesconducted by IPSOS Hong Kong in 2014, 95% of Indonesianrespondents said, "There is a friendly relationship between the twocountries, and they are reliable friends." Also, 92% said that "Japan'seconomic and technical cooperation helped to develop their owncountry" (according to JICA data). It is no exaggeration to say thatthis kind of consciousness is the same on the Japanese side, and thatmost people who have something to do with Indonesia have a feeling ofaffection for Indonesia.

The deepening of human resources exchanges and mutualunderstanding cultivated over many years is an irreplaceable asset forboth countries, and both countries will continue to be good partners inthe future, such as marine development, disaster prevention, socialsecurity, and urbanization. It is expected to address not only commonissues but also issues in the Asian region and the internationalcommunity, such as climate change countermeasures.

In this era, it is even more important for us Japanese to make effortsto know more about Indonesia. We hope that the information in  thisarticle will be useful to those who share the same desire to know moreabout Indonesia. We would like to express our deep gratitude to Mr.Takashi Kojima, Mr. Takao Tadokoro and Mr. Toshio Masuoka, who havebeen instrumental in organizing the information for this series and inorganizing the interim report.
                                                                                               (May 2020, Sombo Yamamura)
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