NARBO

Jasa Tirta I and JWA Joint Mini Workshop on RBO Financing

Tadashige Kawasaki
NARBO secretariat

      Jasa Tirta 1 Public Corporation (PJT1), one of the leading RBOs in Asia as a corporate type of RBO and Japan Water Agency (JWA) made MOU last March and agreed to enhance collaboration through development of the engineering on water resources management. Recently, momentum of establishment of RBOs is seen many countries as one of the methods of implementation of IWRM at field level. However, we sometimes see the fact that lack of the budget is one of the obstacles to implement IWRM at field. In this way, we’re facing the issues of how to establish and manage RBO.

   “IWRM Guidelines at River Basin Level” issued by UNESCO says the necessity of securing the financial resources for IWRM coordination in order to promote IWRM in the basin. Now, implementation of IWRM at field is strongly requested to achieve the IWRM target on SDGs. It’s high time to focus on financial matters of IWRM. Based on these backgrounds, PJT1 and JWA agreed to hold the joint workshop by focusing on RBO financing.

   The joint workshop was held as one of the concrete actions of MOU which was made this March and aimed to: i; Share each experience on Financing of RBOs, ii; Identify the strengthen and weakness of RBO systems on financing, and iii ; Develop appropriate model of corporate type RBOs by focusing on financing aspects.

   Approximately 50 participants from PJT1, JWA and academy in Indonesia joined the workshop. Intensive discussions were made, and informative presentations were offered by the both parties. Through the workshop, we identified strengths and features of the corporate type of RBO in the field of financing such as water fee collection to be shared through NARBO. As a summary, we agreed to deepen the study on RBO financing for exploring the ideal financing system for IWRM as joint activity and disseminate the result of it at the future NARBO event. Thanks to the sincere contributions of PJT1, the workshop was concluded very successfully. Mr. Harianto, Managing Director of PJT1 concluded that the relationship with PJT1 and JWA now become ‘Brother’ after friend and welcomed the recommendations which were created as a result of the workshop. More information and materials of the joint workshop will be shared at NARBO website soon.

Photo of the Mini-workshop		Mr. Kojima, representative of JWA & Mr. Harianto, Managing Director of PJT1