Having access to clean drinking water and sanitation services is a serious issue everywhere in the world. For hundreds of millions of people who live in areas impacted by violence or armed conflict, the situation has gotten worse. Such as Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israeli attacks against Palestinian water resources in the West Bank.

In Russia’s war in Ukraine, the infrastructure for the nation's water and sanitation systems has been completely destroyed by attacks on water supplies by both sides. Water supply and treatment systems used by civilians have been subjected to collateral damage, used as weapons in deliberate attacks, and put under pressure due to significant population movements.

Then, as hostilities have escalated beginning October 7, 2023, the humanitarian situation in Gaza has substantially worsened. The 2.3 million people who live in the Gaza Strip—of whom half are children—are currently struggling to meet their basic demands for water, sanitation, and hygiene. Some were compelled to start drilling wells near the sea in order to obtain drinking water, or they were depending on the saline tap water from Gaza's sole aquifer, which is tainted with sewage and saltwater. In addition, a blockade on the fuel that powers power plants result in the severe restriction or cessation of water and power supplies. In the north, water trucking—the practice of delivering water in lorries—has either completely ceased or is significantly hindered.

Since it is commonly known that having access to clean, affordable, and safe drinking water as well as sanitation services is a fundamental human right, Water Stewardship Indonesia (WSI) is calling and urge for an immediate halt to attacks and the urge to implementation of several measures, to guarantee that everyone, especially women and children, is protected in conflict areas and has access to enough clean water. The parties involved in the conflict, as well as world leaders and the humanitarian community at large, have an obligation to immediately cease hostilities, restore water supplies, and abide by international humanitarian law, which requires the protection of civilians and the preservation of infrastructure, particularly that pertaining to water and sanitation, which is vital to their survival.

As a series of Water Scarcity Program (WSP) activities, The Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) held the first National Multidisciplinary Team (NMT) Meeting on Monday, 13 September 2023, via hybrid event to discuss the initial draft outline of the National Water Scarcity Management Action Plan. Ninety-one attendees attended the meeting.

The meeting was opened by the Director of Water Resources of The Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas, Mr Mohammad Irfan Saleh, informing the importance of the WSP program to help the formulation policy and strategic direction to manage water scarcity to achieve the Golden Indonesia Vision 2045. The opening was then continued by Caroline Turner from FAO Asia-Pacific, who explained the reality of increasing water scarcity in Asia-Pacific and the experiences of Africa region related to water scarcity management.

After the opening session, the following session was led by Fany Wedahuditama from Water Stewardship Indonesia (WSI) and Global Water Partnership Southeast Asia (GWP-SEA), focusing on the importance of National Multidisciplinary Team (NMT) in the implementation of WSP in Indonesia. The discussion was focused on the role and structure of NMT and the proposed membership of technical working groups. Below is the detailed information on the role of and structure of NMT.

Role of NMT:

• To create an enabling environment for policymakers to improve water management practices and inter-sectoral coordination under water-scarce conditions.
• To promote critical tenets of best practice water accounting and allocation by ensuring all water-using sectors are included and consulted to evaluate and understand trade-offs between competing water uses and sectors.
• To advocate for the institutional changes required to ensure sustainable water management in the future (including permanent Water Accounting Units, legal and regulatory development, and practical stakeholder engagement).

To develop the draft of the National Water Scarcity Action Plan (WSAP), Proposed Structure of NMT:

• High level decision-makers (Minister level).
• Inter-ministerial steering committee (Director level).
• Inter-ministerial Technical Committee (Director level).
• Technical Working Groups (Deputy Director level) with support from representatives of private sector and civil society organizations (CSOs).
• For Technical Working Groups defined by the categories for Technical dan Cross-cutting focus.
• For technical focus, categories based on sustainable availability (supply), efficient demand management and improved data management.
• For cross-cutting focus, categories based on Governance (policy & regulation, institutional and finance)

During the discussion, several members of NMT also proposed to add additional members that are important to be included in NMT, namely the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning / National Land Agency, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Home Affairs. These proposed ministries have several directorates with direct interest and relevance to water scarcity issues.

After the discussion on NMT was closed, it was followed up by a presentation on the Water Scarcity Action Plan draft outline by Fany Wedahuditama. The water Scarcity Action Plan (WSAP) is the main output of NMT, and it will inform how the Government of Indonesia will address water scarcity challenges by emphasizing implementable action items, providing detailed infrastructure and institutional investment plans, and designating clear responsibilities for primary stakeholders. The WSAP offers an in-depth understanding of the current water situation, proposes advancements in national water accounting and allocation practices, and presents forward-looking initiatives for effective water management. The WSAP will underscore the importance of multi-sectoral cooperation, legislative modifications, and collaboration at both national and international scales to achieve sustainable water use in the face of worsening water scarcity.

One primary input of the WSAP was on the incentive and disincentive mechanisms to encourage every priority river basin authority to develop water accounting as the basis of water allocation. This item was not yet included in the draft outline. Furthermore, as the next meeting of NMT, it is expected that the NMT can already have an agreement on the final annotated outline of WSAP; it was suggested that NMT have a collaboration platform to work together. The director of Water Resources proposed for Water Stewardship Indonesia/GWP SEA to propose the best platform options. Moodle and Google Classroom were mentioned as common platforms.

At the end of the meeting, it was agreed that the next NMT meeting would be at the end of November or early December 2023. During October – November, the technical working Groups will have several meetings to discuss the WSAP outline and key issues that should be covered in the action plan. In addition, from the beginning, it would be useful to align the WSAP format with the existing government planning format. This will help in internalizing the WSAP into the planning and budgeting process.

For more information, please contact (Mr) Fany Wedahuditama: fany@ws-indonesia.org and/or fany.wedahuditama@gwpsea.org

The Water Security Program (WSP) is supported by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations in Partnership with the Australian Water Partnership (AWP) which is supported by the Australian Government.

Following the Kick-Off Meeting Workshop for the Water Scarcity Program (WSP) at the end of August, we have successfully embarked on the Water Accounting Training offline for 4 (four) days, from 29th August – 1st September. Trainers from Future Water led the training with support from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), The Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas, and the Ministry of Public Works and Housing. The event garnered an impressive 42 (forty-two) trainees.

This Water Accounting Training is the first part of a series of training workshops with the Water Scarcity Program which focused on building a solid technical understanding of the following concepts: 

• Defining water accounting, its components and domain dependencies.
• Designing a water account and evaluating the impact of different projections and interventions on the Water Accounting results.
• Distinguishing between apparent and actual water savings in agricultural systems through investigating the impact of field-scale interventions on basin scale water savings (using the REWAS tool).
• Quantifying the interactions between different irrigation blocks and accounting for return flows (using the Follow the Water tool).
• Characterising the Cimanuk basin using remotely sensed datasets and refining the preliminary Water Accounting further.

Day 3 – Water Accounting in Agricultural Systems at Different Scale

Through day three, the trainees learned and gained a better understanding of evapotranspiration, estimating real water savings in agriculture using REWAS tools, and understanding the impact of irrigation efficiencies through Follow Water Tool and hands-on exercises. Before diving into the practice, Prof. Dr. Drs. Waluyo Hatmoko, M.sc, a Research Professor in Water Resources Management, visited the training to share his experiences on knowledge in developing water accounting and water allocation in Indonesia.

Day 4 – Designing a Water Account

In the last day, the training was doing more actively by doing the group work for designing for water account. This involved developing basin summaries and conducting a scenario assessment for water accounting by exploring Earth Map to obtain data for Cimanuk.

After the training, trainees were expected to:

• Addressing data challenges through remote sensing.
• Hands-on experience with platforms like Earth Map and Google Earth Engine to extract and analyse data.
• Field visit; and
• Developing a water account and deriving policy options based on the results. 

Next, the agenda of the Water Scarcity Program following the training is establishing a National Multidisciplinary Team (NMT). This team consists of members from various water organisations (Government, private sector, university, and society) who will developing the Pilot Water Account, Water Accounting Roadmap, Water Scarcity Declaration, and Water Scarcity Action Plan (WSAP). The Water Scarcity Action Plan (WSAP) will be used as one of the key references in planning and budgeting for the Water Security program in Indonesia.

For more information about the Water Scarcity Program, please get in touch with (Mr) Fany Wedahuditama: fany@ws-indonesia.org and/or fany.wedahuditama@gwpsea.org.

The Water Security Program (WSP) is supported by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations in Partnership with the Australian Water Partnership (AWP), which is supported by the Australian Government. 

In the Asia–Pacific region, water resources form the basis of agrarian prosperity and economic development. However, increasing water demand due to population growth, rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, and a changing climate undermine those water resources. Like many parts of the world, the Asia–Pacific faces increasing water scarcity, with varying characteristics, causes and trends across a diverse range of countries at different stages of development.

Indonesia experiences three types of water scarcity: too variable water, over-utilisation and poor water quality. While Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua have surplus water availability, Java, Nusa Tenggara Timur and Nusa Tenggara Barat experience localised water scarcity of varying types and severities. There is seasonal scarcity in parts of Indonesia, resulting in too variable water; during the dry season, 24 of 128 river basins are unable to meet water demands. Over-utilisation of water resources is also an issue in Indonesia, with water conflicts between users. Water demand is increasing due to economic pressures; industrial water demand alone is expected to increase from 9 billion m3 to 36 billion m³ between 2015 and 2045.

The Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas together with other stakeholders, are collaborating with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to implement the Asia-Pacific Water Scarcity Program in Indonesia. The program is being implemented together with Australian technical partners Alluvium-Amperes, funded by the Australian Water Partnership, which is supported by the Australian Government. The Asia-Pacific Water Scarcity Program (WSP) aims to support countries in the Asia-Pacific Region to take practical steps to address and manage water scarcity while experiencing rapid population growth in a changing climate.

Outputs of WSP in Indonesia:

1. Establish National Multidisciplinary Government Teams:
   • High-Level National Multidisciplinary Team (NMT)
   • National Multidisciplinary Team Water Accounting Working Group (NMTWG)
2. Deliver Water Accounting Trainings
3. Develop Pilot Water Account (Cimanuk River Basin)
4. Deliver Water Accounting Roadmap
5. Deliver Water Scarcity Action Plan (WSAP)
6. Deliver Water Scarcity Declaration
7. Deliver High-Level Regional Technical Meeting on Water Scarcity
8. Deliver Regional Water Scarcity Symposium
9. Regional Practitioners Guide on Water Accounting

On Monday 21^st August 2023, BAPPENAS together with Water Stewardship Indonesia (WSI) a leading organisation on good water stewardship in Indonesia, Global Water Partnership Southeast-Asia (GWP-SEA) a multi-stakeholders platform to foster an integrated approach to water resources management (IWRM), FutureWater, Alluvium-Amperes and other stakeholders held a Kick-Off Meeting Workshop for the Water Scarcity Program (WSP) through a hybrid event to inform, discuss and obtain more inputs for the optimal implementation of WSP and cross ministries attended this Kick-off meeting, which reached 99 participants.

One of the important components in implementing the WSP is the formation of a National Multidisciplinary Team (NMT) whose members come from various organisations across waterusing sectors (government, private sector, university, and society). The NMT will have a key role in developing the Pilot Water Account, Water Accounting Roadmap, Water Scarcity Declaration, and Water Scarcity Action Plan (WSAP). The Water Scarcity Action Plan (WSAP) will be used as one of the key references in planning and budgeting for the Water Security program in Indonesia.

For more information, please contact (Mr) Fany Wedahuditama: fany@ws-indonesia.org and/or fany.wedahuditama@gwpsea.org

The Water Security Program (WSP) is supported by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations in Partnership with the Australian Water Partnership (AWP) which is supported by the Australian Government.

Tuesday, 20 June 2023, the Governor of Riau Islands (Mr) Ansar Ahmad inaugurated the public-private program of WASH. This program collaborated with Water Stewardship Indonesia (WSI), Global Water Partnership Southeast Asia (GWP-SEA), Safe Water Gardens (SWG), Gadjah Mada University, and UMRAH with a support grant from Tauw Foundation. This program has successfully built sanitation facilities for 58 households in three villages in Bintan Regency, namely: Busung, Kuala Sempang, and Pengujan villages; these three become the first villages to implement Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) system facilities in Indonesia.

Through this program, several facilities have been built for surrounding communities that include a sanitation system in the form of septic tanks, kitchen sinks, water reservoirs, and water filters. It also has had a positive impact. The installation of 48 SWG units, five water reservoirs, 51 kitchen sinks, 46 toilets, and 58 Nazava filters. Two hundred and sixteen residents from 58 heads of households have been positively affected by this program, as well as the emergence of 13 new micro businesses.

The Government has, of course, provided support and encouraged efforts to improve the quality of life through various health programs, where sanitation and clean water are the first things we deal with

(Mr) Ansar Ahmad. the Governor of Riau Island

Moreover, the Governor appreciated all parties involved in the program and invited the whole community to encourage awareness of health's importance.

To increase community knowledge and participation, SWG also trained six people as trainers who will continue WASH coaching in another village. With the presence of WASH trainers, other villages wishing to implement the WASH program that can gain knowledge from trainers who have been trained.

Founder of Safe Water Garden, Dr. Marc Van Loo

The event concluded with the handing over of WASH certificates to WASH Trainers by the Governor, who will become promoters and extension of works in the villages that become WASH Knowledge Centers. This aims to increase public knowledge and awareness regarding the importance of WASH in maintaining health and quality of life.

For further information, please contact Executive Director WSI, (Mr) Fany Wedahuditama: Fany@ws-indonesia.org

Let's take a peek at the excitement of the Indonesian Water Coalition represented by the Founding Members:

1. Ratih Anggraeni - Head of Climate and Water Stewardship, Danone Indonesia
2. Rudi Zapariza - Stakeholder Outreach Manager, YKAN
3. Mellisa Mina - Sustainability Manager, Multi Bintang Indonesia
4. Fany Wedahuditama, Executive Director of Indonesia Water Coalition and Regional Coordinator, Global Water Partnership - Southeast Asia (GWP-SEA)

This event was held last week, 31st May in a discussion with atamerica visitors on 'Let's Work Together to Accelerate Change in Tackling the Water Crisis!'

It discusses joint actions in overcoming the global water crisis.

Watch the recording below.

The IWSN Network successfully held a meeting in March 2023 to determine the form and management of the IWSN Network for 2023. Several institutions and organizations attended the online meeting, including the National Water Resources Council (DSDAN), Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Perum Jasa Tirta 1 Malang, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Indonesia, Indonesian Conservation Foundation, Center for Regulation, Policy and Management (CRPG), and Water Stewardship Indonesia (WSI).

The members agreed that the current institutional form preferred choice is Staged - Legal Identity, in which this institutional form is the initial form with a full organizational management structure until the organization is truly independent, with the ultimate goal of forming a legal identity in the form of a registered and legally valid association.

The agreed management structured management of IWSN is as the following:

• Dr. rer. nat. Ir. Heru Hendrayana, IPU, as Chair of the Advisory Board or Chair of the Advisory Panel. Lecturer/Senior Researcher in the Field of Groundwater Resources the Faculty of Engineering – Gadjah Mada University (UGM) Yogyakarta.
• Mohamad Mova Al'Afghani, SH, LL.M.Eur, Ph.D., as Chairman of the Supervisory Board or Chair of the Supervisory Committee. Director of the Center for Regulations Policy and Governance (CRPG).
• Fany Wedahuditama as Chairman of the Board or Chair of the Steering Committee. Regional Coordinator at Global Water Partnership (GWP) SEA and Executive Director at Water Stewardship Indonesia (WSI).

Based on these decisions above, the new management will first hold its internal meeting in April to determine the IWSN Action Plan for 2023/2024. Furthermore, IWSN management will need to develop strategies and management plans to achieve IWSN goals and objectives.

It is expected that IWSN will soon hold its first public event to facilitate the adoption and implementation of sustainable fair and resilience water stewardship principles in Indonesia as well as the official launch of IWSN. The official launch of the IWSN Network is expected to encourage many parties and other stakeholders to join the network.

For further information, please contact Mr Catur Adi Nugroho: catur@ws-indonesia.org

On 6th February 2023, Indonesia Water Coalition (IWC) successfully held its first gathering offline at Pusat Suaka Satwa Elang Jawa (PSSEJ), Bogor, West Java. The gathering was held to discuss the coalition's programs, including all three working groups' plans for this year to ensure the achievement of its ultimate goal, which is water security that supports people, environment, and economic development in Indonesia.

The gathering also discussed the importance of aligning each working group activities plan with existing budgeting to ensure adequate resource mobilization and launching the official logo of the coalition. After finalizing all the work plans, IWC members will focus on ensuring the implementation of the work plan. Then, to wrap up the gathering, the members also planted trees to symbolize the mission to support water conservation.

The Indonesia Water Coalition members are PT Coca-Cola Indonesia, PT Danone Indonesia, Global Water Partnership Southeast Asia (GWPSEA), PT LÓreal Indonesia, PT Multi Bintang Indonesia, PT Nestle Indonesia, PT Unilever Indonesia, Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN), and Yayasan Aliansi Wali Sumber Daya Air Indonesia (Water Stewardship Indonesia), have a shared objective to actively work towards water security and sustainable management of water resources through collective action.

Contact the Indonesia Water Coalition Secretariat or us: Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN) for further information.

Poor sanitary conditions can cause disease impacts on public health in Indonesia. Diseases such as diarrhea, typhus, polio, and intestinal worms are a real impact of these diseases caused by poor sanitation. Through this impact, the three village governments in Busung Village, Kuala Sempang, and Pengujan in Bintan District realized the need to increase awareness of the importance of having proper and safe sanitation facilities for their community members.

Water Stewardship Indonesia (WSI), in collaboration with Global Water Partnership Southeast Asia (GWP-SEA), Safe Water Gardens in December 2022 - January 2023 through SWG Program, the 3 Village Governments in Bintan Regency are committed to achieving access to proper and safe sanitation in their areas. On the 19th of January 2023, the activity began with a socialization of the SWG Program, attended by representatives from the Heads of RT, RW, traditional religious leaders, and village volunteers about the importance of access to proper and safe sanitation, how to understand the essential information on WASH access of each household in the village and how the Safe Water Garden (SWG) program can help to improve the WASH access of the community.

The socialization was followed up with e-Survey training for village volunteers who acted as enumerators to obtain initial data on water and sanitation conditions at the household level as a basis for determining the location of the SWG Project pilot.

In this survey activity, in addition to obtaining data related to water and sanitation in the village, the Village Government also receives other positive benefits from this data, mainly as a basis for decision-making in planning and allocating village budget funds for the WASH program, stunting, community welfare improvement, tourism, and so forth.

The SWG program consists of 6 (six) stages:

1. Socialization on the SWG program and building Village Government Commitment to Achieve Adequate and Safe Sanitation.
2. Training and survey of WASH Conditions at the household level electronically.
3. Pilot households identification for project locations. The households are determined based on data analysis from the result of the survey.
4. On-the-job-training for making proper and safe SWG sanitation facilities. This on-the-job training is an approach used to implement the SWG program to ensure that the pilot village can be the knowledge center of the SWG program that aims to be replicated in other villages in the Bintan district and Indonesia.
5. Scaling-up SWG Program by the Village Government. Replication of the SWG program will be conducted independently by the Village Government in village areas where sanitation conditions are inadequate and unsafe based on previous survey data.
6. Monitoring and Evaluation.

The progress of the SWG program is currently at the stage of determining the households of the pilot project in these three villages. Once decided, the “On the Job Training (OJT)” for SWG physical or infrastructure implementation can be started together with the community.

For further information regarding this activity, please contact Fany Wedahuditama: fany@ws-indonesia.org.

This public-private project is made possible through a grant from the Tauw Foundation, coupled with contributions from Safe Water Gardens (SWG), Global Water Partnership Southeast Asia (GWP-SEA) and the public Desa funds.

Water is essential for human health and wellbeing and in developing and maintaining successful and healthy economies. Failure to manage water resources properly can threaten many aspects of development. Currently, economic losses related to water insecurity are estimated to include US$260 billion per year from inadequate water supply and sanitation, US$120 billion per year from urban property flood damages and US$94 billion per year of water insecurity to irrigators (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2022)). For this reason, responsible and inclusive stewardship of this critical and finite resource is needed from various parties.

Good water stewardship provides the opportunity to make an impact at catchment or landscape level, and support sustainable production and protection efforts by emphasising and strengthening good water management and governance practices. To bring the action to scale, many obstacles are present. Lack of insights into the financial mechanisms and incentives, fragmented water governance leading to confusion in mapping key stakeholders and limited access to reliable data on water, and a shortfall of enforcement and monitoring are among them. While the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) is seeing a growing uptake of its Standard by business sites, catchment-scale multi-stakeholder collaborations to achieve the five water stewardship outcomes remain limited.

As part of ‘Boosting sustainability practice and performance at the landscape level through good water stewardship’ project, AWS Indonesia, in collaboration with researchers from the Institute for Economic and Social Research of the University of Indonesia (LPEM UI), embarked on a study to explore potential financial incentives and funding mechanisms to support better uptake of good water stewardship in Indonesia.

This study aims to identify the enabling environment and high opportunity mechanisms and incentives for government, financial institutions, companies and smallholders to escalate the uptake of and joint investment in good water stewardship, particularly in Indonesia. The analysis is conducted by defining the existing government and financial sector landscape as well as by looking at some best practices of financing mechanisms and incentives in the region and globally. Through consultation and collaboration with partner organisations and Standard implementers, recommendations are provided to support government and financial institutions in Indonesia to drive good water stewardship practices.

To be able to gain full understanding of good water stewardship, the AWS Standard and the intention and requirements of its indicators, download AWS Standard and Guidance at: https://a4ws.org/the-aws-standard-2-0/ 

Download the summary document and please contact AWS to get access to the full document.  

Contact (Mr) Fany Wedahuditama: fany@ws-indonesia.org for more information and further collaboration.

This document is part of a set of reports resulting from the “Boosting Sustainability Practice and Performance at Landscape Level through good water stewardship” project. This document was developed by Yayasan Aliansi Wali Sumber Daya Indonesia (Yayasan AWS Indonesia) and the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS), in collaboration with the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia. This project was possible thanks to a grant from the ISEAL Innovations Fund which is supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO.