The Hard Way to the High Road : Transition of Community-based Water Groups to Professional Service Providers in Indonesia

As significant numbers of Indonesian villages are outside the reach of utility service, since the 1990s the Government of Indonesia (Government) has been supporting the construction of village water infrastructure to be managed by users through community-based water organizations (CBOs). Emphasizing project ownership and democratic involvement, community-based management is thought to allow systems to be better maintained and operated post-project. Although community involvement in water supply has been going on through national projects in Indonesia for years, it was not until 2004, through the Water Resources Law, when the role of CBOs in water supply development was formally recognized. Before 2004, most policy pronouncements and official project documents considered CBOs to be a vehicle for project implementation rather than a long-standing approach to rural water development and management. The perhaps unexpected success of some CBOs is fomenting a discussion among policy-makers and project designers around whether CBOs might not transition from the original concept of a post-construction 'coping mechanism' into a real engine for accelerating access to water in rural areas through a service-oriented enterprise of the community. Using the project inputs as genuine start-up capital, can CBOs create value? Is there sustainability after project? And if there is, what can be done to encourage more of it?