Water privatisation matter in Jakarta for the past 20 years has not met the demands of the public, even the water has become economic goods that is getting more expensive.
Marwa, S.I.P in her research found that water price in Jakarta had increased continuously to 8,000 per m3, or the highest in Southeast Asia. She thought the water privatisation was not service but economic oriented.
“There have been no alternative solutions as well, so this has triggered opposition movement, such as the formation of public coalition for right of water,” said Marwa at Faculty of Social and Political Sciences UGM on Friday (9/3) in a discussion that highlighted the water management in Jakarta, hosted by Institute of International Studies (IIS) of the Faculty.
According to Marwa, in her research she introduced the movement of remunicipalisation, which is to return privatised goods to public goods.
Remunicipalisation, said Marwa, was predominant in developed countries because of the good human resource, technology, and understanding with as many as 235 cities in the world had already focused on the issue by 2015.
Marwa explained in Indonesia, in 2015 the Supreme Court agreed on the litigation of Water Law revocation, unfortunately this was not seen as having brought significant impact on the remunicipalisation movement.
“This is because the Supreme Court has not explicitly stated that the privatisation contract is to be annulled,” said Marwa.
Another researcher in the IIS, Tadzkia Nurshafira, expected through remunicipalisation, people’s right of water would be met, without the movement need of removing the private sector from water regulation and provision system.
“Because water needs to be regulated no matter what. So, the government and private sector need to cooperate well for better water provision,” said Tadzkia.