CLEAN WATER MANAGEMENT: WHAT DOES THE GOVERNMENT NEED TO DO

TO DISTRIBUTE CLEAN WATER IN REMOTE AND LITTORAL AREAS

Written by: Dwiki Halla
Water takes a very big role in our life. It is the most abundant substance on the surface
of Earth. Water has always been an important life-sustaining drink to humans and is essential
to the survival of most other organisms. Excluding fat, water composes approximately 70%
of human by body mass.
In Indonesia, due to different types of terrain and geographic condition, people who
are living in remote areas and littoral areas are facing the problem of their resources of clean
water. Take example from the remote areas, they need to walk for miles just to get clean
water, and this activity is time and energy consuming. As for the people in littoral areas, they
face another problem. Their water resources are contaminated with saline, which is not the
best choice for drink and fulfilling the needs of washing and bathing.
Water is seen as a human right. That means water is not for sell. The Government is
obliged to distribute it everywhere in the nation for free. While the cost of distribution can be
taken from public taxes. However, in Indonesia water flows into our houses and we have to
pay for it, and this is contrary to the view of water as a human right.
To distribute clean water in remote and littoral areas seems to be impossible, since,
talking in general, 71% of Earths surface is water. The waters volume on earth is 1.4
billion km3 but only 3% of it is fresh water, the rest 97% is saline. Remember that not all of
them are in our nation. So, what needs to be done by the Government to solve this problem?
In conventional, people tend to fetch clean water from rivers and lakes. But this will
not last so long due to population explosion and lack of awareness. This lack of awareness
too is a main factor of the significant decrease of clean water resources. This is reflected by
our societys behavior to throw their garbage in the river.
There are a few ways and solutions that can be done to solve this problem, such as
rain harvesting which is using rainwater by cupping and storing it in a storage, like jars, pots,
and so on, so that the rainwater may be used for gardening, as water for the livestock, and
water for irrigation rather than let it run off.

Another way to solve this problem is by expanding and extending the catchment areas
in the nation. Because boreholes in urban areas are significantly increasing, and if the
government does not act on this matter, there may be imbalance on water from the catchment
areas and the water from the boreholes.
To conclude, waters role in our life is very big. It is a right for people to have water
freely, and that the Government should take action to distribute it with no cost to every place.
But doing it will not be so easy due to several reasons: different types of terrain and
geographical condition etc. and if the Government cant distribute it to remote and littoral
areas, there are still ways they can bring prosperity to people living in remote and littoral
areas: using nowadays technology of rain harvesting or extend the catchment areas in the
nation.