Indonesian NGOs consolidate advocacy strategy on ADB's Integrated Citarum Water Resource Management Project
16 July 2008
On July 8-9, 2008, Indonesian NGOs held a two day workshop in Bandung, West Java on the ADB’s pipeline Integrated Citarum Water Resource Management (ICWRM) Project. The occasion marked the launch of the Peoples Alliance for Citarum (Aliansi Rakyat untuk Citarum-ARUM).
Participants at the Workshop, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
The early July workshop, involving, Indonesian non-governmental organizations, debtWATCH Indonesia, KRuHA, IESR, E-Law Indonesia, Perkumpulan Boemi, BIGS and Bank Information Center, focused on gathering information about the project, highlighting problems that stakeholders had with the project, and identifying possible solutions. The second day of the workshop was used as a strategy session where NGOs came up with an action plan for future collaboration and a Peoples Alliance for Citarum (Aliansi Rakyat untuk Citarum-ARUM) was formed.
The alliance launched into action immediately by sending the ADB a letter demanding translation of all important documents related to the project. The ADB was asked “How can you expect full public participation for the Integrated Citarum Water Resources Management Project (ICWRMP) if all the information you have is in a language we don’t even understand?”. BIC supported the call by sending an email on July 14, 2008 to the ADB stating our support and stressing which documents needed to be translated.
The ICWRMP is a US $500 million project. It is likely to be financed under the ADB’s new lending modality, the Multi-tranche Financing Facility (MFF). It is scheduled for Board approval in November 2008 and is plagued by transparency, accountability, information disclosure and governance problems. ARUM is demanding that the project not be approved until all the necessary compliance requirements are fulfilled. The Citarum River Basin is the most strategic River Basin in Indonesia, home to 9 million people in West Java and the source of 80% Jakarta’s water supply.
View ARUM's letter to the ADB:
ARUM July 10 Letter to ADB July 10, 2008 (Acrobat pdf, 44 KB)