The stories we did not hear at the World Water Forum in Bali

Last May, the tenth edition of the World Water Forum confirmed its market-oriented approach to water problems. This paradigm has been at the origin of many of the stories of water injustice that the People Water Forum attempted to foreground, amidst worrying intimidation, harassment, and censorship by the Indonesian authorities.

A few weeks ago Indonesia hosted the 10th World Water Forum (WoWF). The event commenced with the President of Indonesia’s speech on the significance of water for global development. As Jokowi declared: “no water, no life, no growth”. The Indonesian government position of presenting water as a “lubricant” for economic development aligns with the nature of the World Water Forum as a platform where water meets money. Indeed, the question of money becomes central in the 10th WoWF, following the issue of financing gap to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 6 on clean water and sanitation for all. The World Bank predicts that meeting the goals will require around $114 billion annually until 2030, covering only construction expenses and not maintenance (World Bank, 2016).

Hence, the concern about the financing gap leads to the conversation on mobilising private and public finance. Global development agencies, financial actors, and philanthropic organisations discussed how water projects can be more attractive and bankable for global investors. Following this narrative, Indonesia showcased its water infrastructure development with the construction of several dams, floating solar panels in Cirata Reservoir and the government’s plan to build the new capital as a sponge city that can restore and maintain the natural water cycle amidst land development. Additionally, Bali as the host city also earned its spotlight, where water plays a fundamental role in the livelihood of Balinese from social, economic, and spiritual aspects. The forum includes melukat, or Balinese Water Purification Ceremony, where participants get to experience local rituals and intimate relationships with water, possessing meanings beyond consumption and sanitation. In his speech, Jokowi also celebrated subak (a traditional Balinese irrigation system), as a form of local knowledge for water management and shall be upscaled to solve the impending water crisis. 

While there were many things to celebrate from the recent WoWF, there were missing stories about the many failed experiments of market-oriented water governance in Indonesia and around the world. For instance, despite the romanticisation of the Balinese relationship with water, it cannot be denied that Bali is facing a crisis of its own. The unsustainable development of the tourism industry, groundwater exploitation, and commercialisation of Bali’s pristine water sources have cost the local citizens their livelihood. These stories were shared instead shared at the People Water Forum, a coordinating platform for water justice movements around the world. Due to intimidation by paramilitary groups and Indonesian authorities, the People Water Forum was held in a reduced and hybrid format, hosting online the events that had to be cancelled in Bali. Bli Agung, from Taman 65, (an organisation of victims of mass killings of Indonesia’s communist party in 1965) shared how even in Denpasar, Bali’s capital, the tap water was dry in the morning and the afternoon as water was directed to South Bali, the area known for its luxury hotels and villas. Similarly, even the listing of subak as World’s Heritage under UNESCO has further deteriorated Bali’s socio-ecological crisis. According to Wardana (2020) the government’s market-based conservation strategy, for example in Jatiluwih Subak, has inadvertently incentivized local farmers to sell their agricultural land instead of conserving it, exacerbating the agrarian crisis in Bali. 

Moreover, beyond Bali, Jakarta has also experimented with market-based water governance in the last 25 years by involving private actors in service provision through concession. Jakarta’s experience with private water concession has led to the worsening of urban water inequality where the urban poor of informal settlements have to bear the disproportionate socio-environmental cost (Marwa, 2024). According to official data, by the end of the concession period, service coverage reaches around 60 per cent with non-revenue water loss remaining as high as 46 per cent (PAM Jaya, 2022). The failure of Jakarta’s water concession was a nationally monumental event that led to the citizens’ lawsuit against provincial and central government as well as the cancellation of the water law in 2015. Nonetheless, no one at the WoWF mentioned what happened in Jakarta. Jakarta’s experience became the elephant in the room that either everyone denies or is too uncomfortable to talk about. Sadly, the one and only session specifically on the Jakarta and Bali Water Crisis at the WoWF got cancelled without notification. 

Certainly, the stories of water injustice resulting from the failed experimentation of market-oriented governance went beyond the geography of Jakarta. The People Water Forum also brought a story from Cape Town, South Africa, where residents in overcrowded households struggled with rationed water and regular cut-off by the municipality. Faiza Meyer, from the African Water Commons Collective, described that installing a Water Management Device (WMD) made an automatic cut possible when water flows more than the allocated amount. However, it needs to be acknowledged that water allocation by Cape Town authority dismissed the actual number of people living in the household and their water needs, worsening water inequality (Millington and Scheba, 2020). With a constant threat of cut-off, people rationed their water use, and sacrificed their sanitation needs, and well-being. Thus, it was not a surprise that for citizens of Cape Town WMD is colloquially defined as a “Weapon of Mass Destruction” (PWF, 2024).  

Amongst the shared grievance of citizens for the dominant practice of water governance, the People Water Forum also brought a hopeful story of decentralised water management in Colombia. Alexandra Guttierez from Organisation Penca de Sabila, a Colombia-based organisation working for socially and environmentally sustainable cities, described how community-based water service provision can survive without necessarily resorting to private sector participation. She described how 27 percent of the population in Colombia relied on community-based water service provision. In such a small-scale water governance, people could exercise their autonomy and subjectivity in deciding where water should flow. Alexandra described how resorting to market-orientation should not be the only solution because with such an approach water will be about money and individuals will be political objects, rather than a political subjects and decision maker (PWF, 2024)

Nonetheless, it was ironic that despite adopting the theme of water for shared prosperity this year and even spoke about water justice as the underlying theme, the WoWF failed to acknowledge the various manifestations of water injustice in the country. The People Water Forum became a crucial platform to bring the multiple narratives of water injustice and alternative forms of water practices. Unfortunately, this year the organisation of the People Water Forum faced substantial challenges resulting from threats, intimidation, and harassment by paramilitary and intelligence agencies. For the first time since it was conducted in 2003, the People Water Forum was forcibly cancelled in an authoritarian manner by the State to protect the elite and business interests at WoWF (Tuslian, 2024). Water crisis became a moment where businesses could profit off, the new investment opportunity, rather than a life-threatening problem to solve. The danger was the emergence of a single narrative to oppress the marginalised voice. This post would like to reassert Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s statement on how “stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanise. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.” The People Water Forum brought up the many stories of market-oriented strategy to the water crisis across the Global South where private sector participation and technical solutions had not resulted in universal access to water. We can start by recognising and reflecting on these stories and their contexts, and then maybe we can come up with a more transformative approach to a just and sustainable water service provision.

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