Building Markets through Quenching Thirst: Clean Water Supply for the Urban Poor in Jakarta

• In Event: 501 - Regular Session. Resource Use, Conflict, and Environmental Justice

Abstract

In developing megacities where income and social inequalities are prevalent, access to clean water often becomes the luxury of the advantaged social groups. In Jakarta, the involvement of public financing institutions had pushed for privatization of water provision and distribution services in 1997. Private water companies do expand their services to urban poor communities through various programs, with the support of public financing institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, but the funds come with the push for commodification and market expansion. This paper looks into the programs for water supply for the urban poor in Jakarta that are supported by the Global Partnership for Output-Based Aid (GPOBA) program, and analyze the extent to which these programs are consistent with better services for and livelihoods of the urban poor. In-depth interviews of representatives of the water service companies, representatives of the urban poor communities, and empirical information about the programs allow this chapter to critically examine these programs in understanding the relationships between public institutions and the incorporation of the urban poor as water consumers. While the program was beneficial for some of the communities in terms of service delivery, the core of it is still to expand and to justify private sector involvement in the delivery of basic services. It reduces the push to question unjust systems, actual discriminative policies and practices that underlie the lack of provision.

Author

• Rita Padawangi, National University of Singapore