Water

Water Champion: Djendam Gurusinga
Managing Water Resources in a River Basin Context
March 2006

By Ma. Christina Dueñas
Water Knowledge and Communications Coordinator, ADB

Mr. Djendam Gurisinga is the President Director of Jasa Tirta II (PJT II) Public Corporation, one of Indonesia's largest river basin organizations (RBOs). His over 30 years of professional experience on water resources management has allowed him to handle complex realities on flood control and management, maintenance of water quality and quantity, environmental and financial issues on the river basin, and more. As President Director of JT II, he steers the corporation towards the continuous pursuit of integrated water resources management, with performance benchmarking and water-wise technology as key allies. Jasa Tirta II Public Corporation This river basin is the biggest and most strategic in the West Java province, covering about 12,000 sq. km and providing water for two provinces, the West Java Province and the capital city of Jakarta. Water resources development at the Citarum River Basin started with the implementation of the Jatiluhur Multipurpose Project in 1956. The Jatiluhur Authority Public Corporation (POJ) was established to operate and maintain the large Jatiluhur Irrigation system and reservoir. POJ was renamed Jasa Tirta II Public Corporation (PJT II) in 1999 and mandated to manage the water resources in the entire river basin. PJT II's main responsibilities include operating and maintaining the irrigation infrastructure and hydro-electric power plant, regulating water resources and hydro-electric power generation, regulating utilization of water resources and ensuring their conservation, and rehabilitating the river basin's infrastructure and natural resources. In 2000, PJT II was granted the ISO9001:2000 Certificate and National Standard (SNI) 19-17025, 2000 for water management and water marking, a systematic process for securing continual improvement through relevant and achievable internal or external norms and standards.

What are Indonesia's key challenges in managing its water resources?

Indonesia faces a variety of challenges in water resources management. These include treating water an economic good, which includes the pricing of water management services, strengthening the currently inadequate capacity for water management, and harmonizing the responsibilities and resources of the different institutions engaged in water management.

On the technical side, we face watershed degradation which shortens the economic life of major dams in the basin. The pollution from domestic, industrial and agricultural wastes has also led to water quality degradation. And slack urban drainage facilities, degradation of recharge areas as well as sedimentation in major multi-purpose dams that store water during wet seasons have increased the threats and hazards of floods.

But the greater challenge is how to handle all these challenges simultaneously and in an interrelated manner.

How has Indonesia been responding to these water management challenges?

I am happy to say that Indonesia has been tackling these challenges with full determination. For instance, to address watershed degradation, we have been dredging reservoirs, promoting public initiatives on re-greening and reforestation, reducing erosion by terracing, and constructing sediment control structures. We've also been reviewing our Catchment Management Plan and intensively promoting public awareness on environmental issues.

For water quality degradation, we have introduced several initiatives designed to address the problem at its source. To name a few, we introduced pollution fees with progressive tariff to promote self-control, enforced wastewater discharge licensing, stepped up the enforcement of environmental laws, and improved our monitoring facilities.

To raise the funds needed to effectively manage our water resources, we have been promoting cost recovery through beneficiaries' pay principle. Admittedly, though, we still have a long way to go in that direction.

Indonesia's water-related institutions suffer from a dearth of technical staff and an ageing workforce that does not have adequate skills and training for the job. We have been remedying the latter through intensive formal and on the job training programs.

What reforms does Indonesia still need to pursue to improve the situation?

I think we need to improve our efforts in managing sectoral interests, e.g. health, agriculture, urban and industry. We also need to involve stakeholders more fully in our planning, decision making and implementation processes. We should be gathering and sharing more hydrologic, environmental, social and economic information, as well as addressing economic and financial issues, including long term costs, benefits and opportunity costs.

How has Jasa Tirta II (PJT II) been undertaking water resources management at the Citarum River Basin?

We believe that water is everybody's business. That's why strong and inclusive stakeholder participation is high on our agenda. We also pursue financial sustainability through policies and mechanisms to recover O & M costs, with full cost recovery being our long term objective.

We also believe that investing in our people strengthens their contribution to the whole process of water resources management, so we engage in skills building activities for them. Finally, we develop and maintain water resources database to support our daily management and decision making.

What have been PJT II's main contributions to IWRM to date?

We have always taken great effort to supply as much as 5.75 M cubic meter of water every year to support food production, especially rice. PJT II manages and supplies irrigation water for 296,000 hectares of rice fields from which 3 million tons of unhulled rice are produced. This is equivalent to 40% of West Java's rice production, or 8% of Indonesia's, and amounts to roughly Rp. 4.5 trillion.

We have also supplied raw water for domestic use, particularly for Jakarta, and for strategic industries in West Java. Annually, this means 435 M cubic meter for domestic use, and 300 M cubic meters for industrial use.

We controlled and minimized the adverse impacts of yearly floods that endanger approximately 20,000 hectares of fertile land.

PJT II has also assisted cooperatives in remote villages —as many as 598 partners with supplies donations of as much as Rp. 2.4 billion— on their cooperative development activities and small scale enterprises.

What factors have contributed to PJT II's achievements?

Sound water policies that are based on national development objectives and stakeholder inputs helped set the framework for our actions. Inclusive stakeholder participation and decision making at the lowest possible level have made conflicts manageable and ensured that our initiatives would find strong support from stakeholders during implementation. Rich databases, innovative analytical tools for assessing water resources, and reliable scientific and technical approaches have enabled us to make sound decisions and designs.

The bottom line, though, is that I think we have had some success in making stakeholders feel that water is as much their business as it is ours, hence their willingness to enter and stay in the collaborative process of water resources management.

How have you been managing the different demands for water?

Our priorities for water usage are clear-first priority goes to water for drinking, second to cultivation, third to industry and last to hydropower generation.

The Provincial Governor approves the applications for the right to use water in the tributaries of the Citarum River Basin. Our job is to examine each new applications vis-avis potential effects on water availability, and recommend a course of action to the Governor.

The annual allocation of water in the main rivers and canals is the result of consultative decision making within the River Basin Water Resources Council, a basin coordinating body.

How has PJT II been affected by the passage of the 2004 Water Law?

The law's intent is clear. However, we could us more practical guidelines and procedures for implementing its procedures. Because of this lack, old regulations that need improving are still being implemented so long as they do not directly contradict the new Water Law.

How has PJT II evolved since it became a member of the Network of Asian River Basin Organizations (NARBO)?

Being part of NARBO has been helpful in that our general and specific knowledge on integrated river basin management has definitely expanded. Beyond that, NARBO's process of surfacing the different problems of member RBOs (river basin organizations) and finding possible solutions for them have helped us understand and come up with solutions to our own problems.

What key messages on integrated river basin management would you like to share with our readers?

Let us start with the most basic. Water is everyone's business so we should respect it as a finite, vulnerable and valuable resource, and take an active part in its conservation and judicious utilization.

Good water management requires well trained and experienced people. Investing in the development of human resources will give us people who understands the multiple benefits and ecological services of water, the relevance of sanitation and hygiene, the importance of integrated water resources management, and even the need to change our lifestyles in many ways.

Water resources management depends on collaboration and partnership at all levels--- from individual citizens to international organizations. This partnership should work towards formulating and implementing appropriate policies that should govern the process, and ensuring transparent and inclusive decision making and implementation of initiatives. More importantly, they should ascertain that the needs of the poor, the women, and the vulnerable are given due importance.

Finally, the software component, e.g. education and partnerships, should always be complemented by sound, innovative and practical hardware component, e.g. updated databases, analytical tools, infrastructure and more.