25 March 2015 – The Central
Jakarta District Court on 24 March annulled the water privatisation contracts
of Suez (PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya – Palyja) and Aetra, finding that the Public-Private
Partnerships (PPP) were negligent in fulfilling the human right to
water for Jakarta’s residents.
The court decision
is the culmination of many years of resistance by a broad coalition of Jakarta
residents, trade unions, and other water justice activists. [1] They were upset
not only with the initial, corrupt, behind-the-scenes decision (made under the
Suharto regime in 1997) to privatize water supply; they opposed the continuous
manipulations of the private operators to increase their profits without
improving water services. Water
services coverage is lower than promised and water leakage levels are high (44%); water tariffs grew
fourfold since privatisation (Rp1.700/m3 to Rp7,020/m3), which is 2.7 times
higher than the public operator in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city.
[2]
Rosa Pavanelli, General Secretary of the global trade
union federation Public Services
International says:
“Yesterday’s decision is a success for the Jakarta citizens and
workers, but also for the global water movement. It is further proof of the
misguided and myopic World Bank and Asian Development Bank privatization
strategies, which are not only unwelcome, but are illegal. We call on the
World Bank and the ADB to immediately cease-and-desist all of their
privatization initiatives in the water and sanitation sector, including in
Nagpur and Mysore in India, and in Lagos, Nigeria.” [3]
The Central Jakarta District Court decision is
coherent with the Indonesian Constitutional Court ruling
of 20 February 2015, which annulled Law No. 7/2004 on Water Resources passed by
the Indonesian government, again under pressure from the World Bank. The ruling
was made on the grounds that water resources have to be controlled and
allocated for the public benefit, thus private companies cannot monopolize
rights over water sources. [4]
Nila Ardhianie, Director of Amrta Institute for Water Literacy in
Indonesia said
“We applaud these two verdicts. For
Jakarta, it’s now up to the governor. Together, we can build a strong public
utility for all Jakartans. We can also get help from strong public
utilities, both in Indonesia and from overseas, but without the distortions of
profit maximization.”
Jakarta joins major cities in remunicipalising their
water services: Paris, Berlin, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Accra, Dar es Salaam,
Kuala Lumpur. [5] Most of these remunicipalisations are not ideological, but
are because privatisation failed to deliver investment, led to poor services,
and unsustainable water rates. Public water services are better able to
integrate social and environmental needs that are critical to planning water
sustainably in the future.
Fiona Dove, Executive Director of the Transnational Institute said
“The citizen's victory in Jakarta will give an enormous boost to the
growing global trend of cities overturning failed privatizations and taking
back control of critical water services. This will empower many more
local governments to close the book on privatization, which has proven socially
and economically unsustainable across the world.” [6]
These two important court rulings in Indonesia provide
momentum for crucial discussions about the right to water and alternatives to
water privatisation, only weeks before governments and other water sector
decision-makers will gather at the corporate-controlled World Water Forum in
South Korea (12-17 April).
Notes:
[1] KMMSAJ (the People’s Coalition Against Jakarta
Water Privatization) filed the Citizen Lawsuit in 2013 accusing the
privatisation project of being unlawful under the Indonesian constitution,
which defines water as a human right.
[3] http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jan/30/water-privatisation-worldwide-failure-lagos-world-bank?CMP=share_btn_fb;
http://www.remunicipalisation.org/#case_Nagpur
[4] http://www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news?disp3_l205404328_text\; http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/02/20/court-bans-monopoly-water-resources.html; http://www.canadians.org/sites/default/files/publications/RTW-Indonesia-1.pdf
[5] See www.remunicipalisation tracker
on Accra (Ghana), Berlin (Germany), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Budapest
(Hungary), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), La Paz (Bolivia), Maputo (Mozambique), and
Paris (France).
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Amrta Institute for Water literacy - A world with sustainable water supply
both in quality and quantity, a just access to water for every living organism
on Earth.
Public
Services International is a global trade union federation representing 20 million working
women and men who deliver vital public services in 150 countries. PSI champions
human rights, advocates for social justice and promotes universal access to
quality public services. PSI works with the United Nations system and in
partnership with labour, civil society and other organisations.
The
Transnational
Institute (TNI) is
an international research and advocacy institute committed to building a just,
democratic and sustainable planet. For more than 40 years, TNI has served as a
unique nexus between social movements, engaged scholars and policy makers.