Opportunities and Challenges in Integrating Community-Based Water Services into the Legal Framework: An Indonesia Case Study

Abstract:     
Attempt to regulate community-based watsan services in the legal framework faces considerable challenges. The first is the problem of defining and delienating the boundaries between 'community-based' versus the so called 'institution-based' (corporate water services). Second is the ambiguity of the concept of 'community' and the lack of acknowledgement on community’s rights and privileges under national legal framework. Third, also related to the first challenge, is the potential of overlap between the regimes of corporate water utilities and that of the community based, where inevitably, one might be sacrificed at the expense of another. Fourth is the problem of sanction attached to the by-laws, such as in criminalizing open defecation. The Fifth is the problem of assets types and ownership. There appears to be unclarity on community assets ownership and this could mean that such assets are ownerless which renders it vulnerable to taking or confiscation from third parties. Finally, there is a problem with the national legal requirement to determine a 'minimum service standard'.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 18

Keywords: water, governance, sanitation, law, legal, infrastructure, environment, public health, policy

working papers series