Indonesia’s improved water and sanitation celebrated this World Water Day

On this World Water Day, Indonesians are celebrating the thousands of households that now have water connections and improved sanitation thanks to Australia’s support.

More than 13,000 houses in seven districts in Central Java have been connected to piped water, and a further 800 houses now have waste water facilities.

These new connections are part of Australia’s development assistance to Indonesia towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people living without access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.

About 52 per cent of households in Indonesia have no on-site access to safe water and 48 per cent lack on-site access to basic sanitation.

AusAID Infrastructure Counsellor Ben Power today travelled to Klaten, Central Java, to mark the completion of the new A$25 million household connections program with local government representatives.

“About 65,000 people in Central Java now have better quality of water supplied to their homes and at a much cheaper price. Another 4,000 people in Surakarta are now connected to the city sewerage system”, Mr Power said.

“Australia is proud to be working with Indonesia to improve the quality of life for thousands of people. These facilities improve the health and livelihoods of parents and their children and make daily life easier for poor Indonesian families,” said Mr. Power.

Australia is working with Indonesia’s central and local governments to improve access to clean water and sanitation. This development assistance will reach about 420,000 people in over 80,000 poor urban households in Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara and Sulawesi.

Australia is investing up to A$75 million over two years to improve water and sanitation in Indonesia.

Media Enquiries:
Mia Salim, AusAID Public Affairs, 0812 1070237
Rendy Djauhari, AusAID Public Affairs, 0811 190 4823