Water Accounting Training – Water Scarcity Program (WSP)

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 1 – Introduction of Water Accounting

Opened by several two opening remarks from Ministry of Public Works and BAPPENAS. Trainees were introduced to the knowledge and concept of water accounting, such as the objectives, components, terminologies, and objectives. 

Day 2 – Capacity Building on Water Accounting

For the second day, trainees were exploring the impact of environmental flows and ecosystem services on Water Accounting and some exercises into developing an outline also discussion on the data availability and accessibility.

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.