Strategy for Realizing Regional Rural Water Security on Tropical Peatland

Abstract

Fulfilling the need for clean water and proper sanitation is, globally, a basic human requirement, and Indonesia is no exception. Clean water and adequate sanitation are the sixth goal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and targets include to ensure the availability of clean water and sustainable sanitation for all by 2030. The achievement of targets in water supply and sanitation in Indonesia is still lagging behind other fields. There are differences in the ease of obtaining access to clean water sources in urban and rural areas, especially for rural communities living on peatlands who experience issues in being provided with clean water. The difficulty is that, even though the amount of available water is relatively large, its quality is low. Barriers to the equitable distribution of services by the government to the entire community are caused by the limited availability of funding, the geographical conditions of scattered settlements, and the limited capacity of human resources. As a result of this problem, it is necessary to formulate a management strategy for providing access to clean water and sanitation for rural communities on peatlands. This research uses the case-study method. The management strategy was formulated on the basis of the environmental and socioeconomic conditions of the community. This method was used to test the effectiveness of the formulated strategy in realizing water security on peatlands in the village of Wajok Hilir. The resulting management strategy can be applied to other villages that have the same land characteristics. The strategy to realize water security for rural communities on peatlands is a self-service strategy. The implementation of the self-service strategy needs to be supported by infrastructure in the form of peat water treatment plant buildings, wells drilled to aquifer depths, and canal blocking to control the groundwater level in peatlands. The management strategy is carried out with community participation, considering that peatlands are a potential water source to meet clean water needs and achieve sustainable water security targets. Efforts to implement the self-service strategy are carried out with these methods: (1) socialization carried out in an integrated manner, (2) infrastructure development as a pilot project, (3) providing knowledge about infrastructure operations, (4) providing temporary assistance to the community, and (5) providing material supplies so that rural communities that are partners can become pioneers of similar movements.