Govt Prepares Financing Innovation for Access to Drinking Water

2 months ago 41

November 19, 2024 | 08:56 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Diana Kusumastuti, Deputy Minister of Public Works, said the ministry will continue its efforts to provide the community with access to potable water. These efforts, she underlined, will be supported by encouraging innovation in financing to create sustainable models.

Diana said one of the funding innovations is the use of a business-to-business or B2B funding system, which she said will reduce the burden on the state budget (APBN).

"Not everything has to be funded by the state. If we rely on APBN, I am afraid it will never be achieved because there are many things that the state budget has to deal with," she said at the closing ceremony of the National Urban Water Supply Project (NUWSP) held at the auditorium of the Ministry of Public Works on November 19.

Diana also believes that local governments will find a sustainable funding pattern so that regionally owned companies that address water issues can operate independently so that regencies and cities are not buried by tariff increases, "This is a collective effort," she said.

Previously, the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing had entered into a debt-based cooperation with the World Bank through the National Urban Water Supply Project (NUWSP), a national program to support the development of urban drinking water supply through innovative and creative investment financing. The collaboration ends today, November 19.

"As of today, it is closed. At the time of closing, we should be able to have increased performance and benefits," she added.

The cooperation has used up an investment of US$100 million and provided better access to clean water services for more than 1.6 million households, exceeding the initial target of 1.2 million households. Diana said that in the 2020-2024 RPJMN, the program is targeting 10 million additional piped connections for households.

"This has been implemented, but by calculation, it is only 16 percent of the target (RPJMN)," she added.

Diana added that although this collaboration is over, there is still the possibility that there will be a continuation of the collaboration with the World Bank. At the moment, the Ministry of Public Works is in the process of evaluating and preparing the steps and programs that will be used in the future.

"Let's finish the ongoing activities first, as we should fully achieve the goals of these programs, 100 percent," she added.

Diana said that according to her records, only 91.72 percent of the population has managed to access safe drinking water. "I hope it can be 100 percent by 2030, but the target is 2045. It's still a long way to go," she said.

Diana revealed that the achievement of access to piped drinking water has reached only 19.79 percent, while the target set in the National Medium-Term Development Plan or RPJMN for the period from 2020 to 2024 is 30.45 percent.

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