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| Bottles of water produced by private companies are sold in higher price |
In Indonesia, there is national company which is responsible in managing the water. In local language it is called PT Perusahaan Air Minum (PT PAM) or in English is National Drinking Water Corporation. In respect of vast resources of natural water, the corporation manages the business by dividing the corporation into many divisions based on the region. For instance, in North Sumatera Province, the name of corporation is changed into PT Perusahaan Daerah Air Minum Tirtanadi (PDAM Tirtanadi), or in English Local Drinking Water Corporation. The word of Tirta means water indicating it is centrally led by the central company.
However, the story of these companies were stopped in term of drinking water. The water provided by PT PAM is rarely to be drunk by citizens. People intend to drink water from private companies which have been producing water bottle. This trend has been growing until now although in the first selling, people thought how can we buy water. But more importantly, this is crucial and important regarding the public health of citizens.
Although the drinking water is bought by the citizens in form of water bottle, the company still provides the drinking water for certain citizens particularly for them who cannot afford the water. However, in term of public health, the national company or the government itself should have managed it directly. Technically speaking, the national company should have launched the drinking water products so it can stabilize the market of drinking water conducted by private enterprises.
According to the Indonesian constitutional of 1945, stated in the section XIV about National Economy and Social Welfare article 33, clearly written that “the land and waters as well as natural riches therein are to be controlled by the state to be exploited to the greatest benefit of the people”. By understanding this constitutional law, the government should organize every water resources regarding the side whose controls. Hence, in this context, natural resources are utilized for social welfare not merely for private sector.
The most important thing comes to our mind, what is the association between the private sectors which control and exploit the water resources commercially with the society itself?
As we mentioned earlier that the natural resources which in this case is water for drinking is utilized and to be exploited for the greatest benefit of Indonesian. In many developed countries, the utilization of water provided by the government can be consumed by the citizens without charge. It means this can help the people who are in poverty to reduce their expenses in drinking water. Although the Indonesia’s national company has been providing the source of drinking water, the location of affording the water is not yet distributed very well because it is only available in the branch office.
On the other hand, the presence of free healthy drinking water provided by the governments will improve the government to maintain public health in higher quality. This will affect significantly for poor people who live in urban areas or big cities. But how is that related to the public health?
Mostly, water resources in developing countries are contaminated by dangerous materials such as heavy metals. Meanwhile, the products of bottle water and drinking water has been growing in the past ten years as several local companies has been monopolizing the market itself. Additionally, the importing policy opens the gate for foreign products to be marketed and promoted to the society.
Consequently, the price of buying products provided either by several local companies or foreign companies increases the price and these cannot be afforded by many people. As a result, unqualified companies which sell drinking water comes to answer the higher price by providing affordable products.
Okay, so what is the association?
Many of these mentioned companies are not accredited and standardized by Indonesian department of health regarding of the organizational and healthy aspects of water exploitation. This can increase the risk of spreading infected diseases such as typhoid while in Canada air-borne diseases such as giardiasis, schistosomiasis and trachoma are associated to unprofessional exploitation of water resources.
More importantly, most of these companies use metal-made tank which probably is oxidized in transporting the source of the water to their pumping station. The facilities and infrastructures provided by these companies increase the risk of contaminated water which can be spreading publicly. In big cities, another type of people who consume this water is university students. These people which are originated from rural sites are more likely to afford this type of water in saving their monthly living cost.
Overall, the demand of drinking water is increasing while the price of many products is also becoming more expensive. Therefore, to prevent the air-borne infected diseases which can generate national medical issues, the national company must provide affordable drinking water. Economically speaking, the presence of drinking water provided by local and national government companies would provide workforce too.