The following titles links to World Water Week website

On Sept 17, one of the lanes of the main road connecting Jakarta to the Tanjung Priok port collapsed. The police had to detour the traffic to another road. The culprit blamed for the incident is abrasion from salt water (news in Bahasa Indonesia):

Earlier on the 14th of September, another land subsidence occurred along Manggarai river in Sultan Agung street, causing the fence to tilt for 45 degrees (click here for more news).

Below is a video from ABCNews (2008) about the sinking of Jakarta. Main cause of the floods are solid wastes and squatters in riversides. Both causes the river to become shallow and narrow, thereby reducing its capacity during high flow. High-rise building and over-abstraction of groundwater also contribute to land subsidence and saltwater intrusion.

Related posts:

• Legal Policy and Development. Jakarta's Water Future (World Water Week) – UPDATE
• The Potential Role of the Human Right to Water in the Management of Indonesia’s Water Resources
• Experts: Jakarta to sink by 2025
• 14 Disturbing Facts about Jakarta's Water

The Human Right to Water under the Water Law? Yes. But look also at its elucidation.

If there is anything I forgot to upload into this website from the last World Water Week then it is my own presentation and pictures. So here it is. The title of my presentation is the above headline. I argue that the Human Right to Water may be able to correct structural loopholes in the current legal framework for water resources management in Indonesia. There are, however, prerequisites which must be fulfilled for such role to take place, and these are (i) building linkages between the Human Right to Water into the current judicial and legislative system and (ii) developing existing institutions, in terms of capacity, resources and mandate in order to incorporate human rights claims.

I have a draft paper to support my arguments which I decide not to share as it is still in the form of, well, a draft paper. But if you are interested, do email me at movanet(at)gmail.com I await for your feedback and comments.

H.T. Dr. Riant Nugroho for the pics

The World Water Week which ended last September 11th urge participants of the upcoming meeting of MDG High Level Plenary Meeting to pay more attention to water issues. According to the Stockholm Statement: “…water needs more attention: policy, investment and management. Continuing to neglect it is a recipe for disaster, and the failure of all MDGs.”

Read the full statement here.

Just to add some more tips:

1. Don’t forget to bring converters!

2. Use Kindle to read (and skip all the print papers)

3. Make sure everything is fully charged

4. Hassle first, fun later. Meaning: go through security check then find your coffee

UNEP recently released a publication titled “The Greening of Water Law”. The book contain elements to consider for integrating environmental concerns into national and international water law. Read/download here.

H.T to: Bo Magsig

UNDIP e-Journal published a paper about Semarang water utility.  Here’s some interesting facts on the paper:

• In order to obtain the water connection people have to pay installment cost Rp 700.000 (75 US $) and it is equal with minimum wage per month for labor in Semarang.
• According to the State Auditing Agency, PDAM Semarang had a loss of Rp. 21 billion from customer arrears and mismanagement.
• Around 10.000 water connections are suspended for 2 months (Suara Merdeka, 03/20/2007) and will not be activated unless customer paid their debt.

Read more.