Gov’t Supports Public Private Partnership Scheme in Infrastructure Development

President Jokowi during the inauguration of Umbulan Drinking Water Distribution System (SPAM) in Sidoarjo Regency, East Java, Monday (22/03). Photo by: BPMI/Laily Rachev

The Government will continue to support the development of infrastructure projects through the Public Private Partnership scheme, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said.

“We will continue to support the Public Private Partnership development scheme, not only for Umbulan Drinking Water Distribution System, but also for other projects,” the President said in his remarks when inaugurating the Umbulan Drinking Water Distribution System (SPAM) in Sidoarjo Regency, East Java, Monday (22/03).

The implementation of the Public Private Partnership scheme, he added, would reduce the burden of financing from the State Budget.

For the record, the Umbulan Drinking Water Distribution System is one of the National Strategic Projects (PSN) which was established based on Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 3 of 2016 on the Acceleration of the Implementation of National Strategic Projects as amended several times, most recently by Presidential Regulation Number 109 of 2020 on the Third Amendment to Presidential Regulation Number 3 of 2016 on Acceleration of Implementation of National Strategic Projects.

The construction of the project, which was initiated 40 years ago, began in 2017 through a Public Private Partnership scheme between the Government and PT. Meta Adhya Tirta Umbulan as the winner of the procurement auction.

Based on the data from Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing, the Umbulan Drinking Water Distribution System has a capacity of 4,000 liters per second which can serve 310,000 thousand households or 1.3 million people. The facility will increase the supply of piped clean water to five cities/regencies in East Java Province, namely Pasuruan City, Pasuruan Regency, Sidoarjo Regency, Surabaya City, and Gresik Regency.

President Jokowi also underscored that the infrastructure project should bring maximum benefits to the communities. To that end, he ordered that the obstacles in distributing clean water to the household level can be immediately resolved by involving related parties, including the Central government, provincial governments, regency/city governments, and PT. Meta Adhya Tirta Umbulan as the project operator. (FID/UN) (RI/LW)