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USAID IUWASH PLUS Holds a Discussion on Safely Managed Water for Journalists

On September 17, 2021, USAID IUWASH PLUS facilitated a virtual media discussion on safely managed water. This event involved 40 journalists from mainstream media outlets and 10 bloggers, as participants. Also participating in the event were representatives from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Public Works and Housing, and Ministry of National Development Planning/BAPPENAS.

Presenting in the 2.5 hours-discussion was the experts in water and health sector as the speakers. They are Head of Sub-Directorate of Water Supply of the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, Mr. Dades Prinandes; the Coordinator of Water Health and Sanitation, Directorate of Environment Health of the Ministry of Health, Ms. Ely Setyawati; the Assistant Manager for Raw Water and Water Quality Control of Perumda Air Minum Tugu Tirta, Malang City, Mr. Djaka Setyanta; and the Advocacy and Communication Advisor of USAID IUWASH PLUS, Ms. Lina Damayanti.

The discussion opened with a presentation from Mr. Dades Prinandes on the current situation of water access in Indonesia. He explained that through 2020, only 11.9% of Indonesian population has access to safely managed water or water that is safe to be consumed directly.

Dades added, “If the need of safely-managed water is not met, the stunting prevalence will be high and it eventually contributes to the loss in the gross domestic product.”

Further, Dades explained that the Ministry of Public Works and Housing’s vision in 2030 aims at providing smart living, which include access to safe water, for 100% Indonesian citizens. To achieve this target, all districts/cities should apply water safety plan.

Ely Setyawati added that community should also participate so that they can get the safe water access skillfully and independently, among others is by applying drinking water management at household level.

To show that safely managed water is possible to achieve, Mr. Djaka Setyanta shared experiences of Perumda Air Minum Tugu Tirta in implementing a water safety plan and initiating a prime drinking water zone. Concluding the discussion, Ms. Lina Damayanti emphasized the benefits of safely managed water and shared what USAID IUWASH PLUS has done to help water access improvements, notably for the urban poor, in its supported areas. She also requested the journalists and bloggers to help spread the word about safely managed water issues.

The USAID IUWASH PLUS project also held a similar media discussion on the current situation of WASH access in Indonesia in the month prior. In addition, the project will also conduct two other media discussions to celebrate the 2021 Global Handwashing with Soap and the World Toilet Day  in the coming months.

The series of media discussions that USAID IUWASH PLUS has conducted since August 2021 have become the pre-events towards the 2021 National Sanitation and Water Conference (NSAN) that the Ministry of National Development Planning/BAPPENAS and the Working Group of Housing, Settlement, Water, and Sanitation (Pokja PPAS) will jointly hold in November 2021.