Water Papers

2021-03-18, World Bank

There are close to four hundred water utilities in Indonesia with varied performance and capacity but only around half are considered well performing. Inefficient operations has been identified as one of the key issues hampering performance and reducing utilities’ capacity to provide reliable water supply services. If not addressed, water utilities’ inefficiency could hamper government efforts to achieve development targets. High rates of nonrevenue water (NRW) pose a major challenge to the operational efficiency of many of Indonesia’s water utilities. This case study is part of a series prepared by the World Bank’s Water Global Practice to highlight existing experiences in the water sector. The purpose of the series is to showcase one or more of the elements that can contribute toward a Water in Circular Economy and Resilience (WICER) system. This case focuses on interventions on the utility’s supply side to increase efficiency and minimize waste.

2015-08, World Bank Group

Since the introduction of the Water Law in 2004, national river basin management in Indonesia has been carried out by 30 public river basin management organizations (RBOs), called either Balai Besar Wilayah Sungai(s) (BBWSs) or Balai Wilayah Sungai(s) (BWSs); the two are referenced together here as B(B)WSs. These national government agencies fill both regulatory and management functions, as well as undertaking construction, operation, and maintenance of river infrastructure and irrigation systems larger than 3,000 hectares. Provincial water agencies also provide water resource and river basin management in provincial basins and basins of national river territories, in coordination with the national river basin agencies.

2019-06-01, World Bank

Lake Toba is a unique natural asset of global significance with a rich cultural heritage located in the North Sumatra Province of Indonesia. Located 904 meters above sea level and with a maximum depth of more than 500 meters, this 87-kilometer-long lake provides a wide range of economic and environmental goods and services for more than half a million people and 400 villages in the seven districts covered by the lake's 3,658 square kilometer catchment. However, sustaining the long-term economic and environmental value of Lake Toba depends on addressing the deterioration of water quality. This technical guidance note reports on the potential benefits of using remote sensing as part of an integrated strategy to improve the monitoring and management of water quality in Lake Toba.

2015-03-28, World Bank

Indonesia has made significant increase in rural sanitation access and services from 20.64 percent in 2006 to 44.09 percent in 2013. A study conducted in 2012 estimated a capacity gap of 12,000-18,000 sanitation professionals (from engineers to community workers) to meet the 2015 millennium development goal (MDG) targets, with 30 percent of community health centers not having frontline sanitation personnel. Capacity building programs have so far been largely conducted by technical units, projects, and local government offices. Following an assessment on how and where to best address the issues, the technical assistance (TA) recommended a transformative approach, away from project-based cascading training where training is done at national level and then repeated and cascaded to provincial, district, sub-district, and village levels to an institutionalized capacity building program. The institutionalization of capacity building program targeted two primary audiences: future professionals (pre-service) addressed through integrating national strategy for community-based total sanitation (STBM) modules into health polytechnic schools curriculae and current professionals (inservice) addressed through accredited and certified training programs, with an additional e-learning scheme to reach out to a wider group of professionals and interested parties. The support to scale-up the use of the STBM human resource capacity building system can be provided via a circular letter of Ministry of Health (MoH) to local health offices and STBM partners. Continuous support through the MoH system to follow-up and evaluate outcomes of training and education will be key to sustainability and roll-out across all provinces of Indonesia.

2017-08, World Bank Group

With 2.1 billion people – mostly in rural areas – lacking safely managed drinking water and reported low rural water supply functionality rates, the Sustainable Development Goals pose a triple challenge: to reach unserved mostly rural population groups, to raise service levels, and to sustain existing and future services. This assessment uses a multi-country case study approach to identify good practices and challenges toward building sector capacity and strengthening sustainable service delivery models for rural areas. Recognizing the limitations of the Demand Responsive Approach, the emergence of various management models, the identified need for ongoing support to rural service providers, and the critical role of enabling institutions and policies beyond the community-level, the added value of this assessment lies in: i)the development of a comprehensive analytical framework that can be used to analyze and operationalize a more sustainable service delivery approach for rural water supply; ii) the rich set of cases and good practices from the 16 countries informing the global body of "knowledge in implementation," and iii) the formulation of recommendations and policy directions to improve the sustainability of services depending on sector development stage. Policy recommendations are centered around five areas: institutional capacity, financing, asset management, water resources management, and monitoring and regulatory oversight.