Berita Blora
INFOKU, BLORA -The Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) commemorates World Water Day centered at Randugunting Dam, Japah District, Blora Regency, on Wednesday (30/3/2022).
In his remarks, Deputy Minister (Wamen) of PUPR, John Wempi Wetipo who represents the minister of PUPR, said that there are around 2.1 billion people in the world who live without access to water.
“Based on data released by United Nation Water (UN Water), there are still around 2.1 billion people who live without access to water. Globally, 80 percent of the population living in rural areas still uses water from unsuitable sources ," he said.
As a vital need and human right for human life, water is needed for various things, including domestic, non-domestic, irrigation, energy, flora and fauna. However, currently there are still many community groups who have not received the right to water.
"In addition, no less than 68.5 million people are in refugee camps due to natural disasters, wars and socio-political conflicts and have access to water," he said.
Likewise, community groups such as women, persons with disabilities, workers, children, students, indigenous peoples and others are still experiencing a water demand crisis.
So it is necessary to maintain the availability of ground water for the future. To answer these challenges, the Ministry of PUPR through the Directorate General of Water Resources (SDA) conducts conservation, revitalization, and digitization of water resources infrastructure development in Indonesia to achieve more targeted development based on priority scales and the benefits can be directly felt by the community.
Video: President Joko Widodo during the inauguration of the Randugunting Dam , Kab. Blora
"In addition, the preparation of the natural resource infrastructure development program is carried out in an integrated manner with regional development, in order to maintain the availability of water so that all Indonesian residents in the future will have access to water without exception," he explained.
Commemoration of World Water Day this time is a joint effort to increase public and international community attention on the importance of groundwater for life in order to jointly protect the management of water resources in a sustainable manner.
This commemoration is also part of a door-to-door campaign to raise awareness of protecting water to avoid environmental damage.
Untreated environment and water can be enemies. However, if cared for properly, they will become friends. “Our behavior towards water and the environment will cause a reciprocal reaction to the treatment of water and the environment towards us.
If illegal logging and environmental damage continue, there will be droughts and floods," he said.
This commemoration is also a momentum to invite the millennial generation to take an active role in protecting ground water.
The involvement of students and university students is a real step in the regeneration of pioneers in managing water resources in the future.
Furthermore, he said that the implementation of actions in the regions and a series of World Water Day activities that have involved the community, professionals, universities, ministries/agencies, BUMN, private sector, and local government, are expected to form public understanding and awareness.
They not only have rights as water users, but also share and are responsible for and are obliged to contribute in preserving nature and the environment that is the source of water.
“I hope that in the future it won't just stop with planting trees, because nature needs us to do more than that. Tree planting activities must be followed by steps to care for, grow, maintain and maintain. So from now on, let's start with the action of growing trees," he explained.
On this occasion, he conveyed that Indonesia was chosen to host the 10th World Water Forum (WWF) in 2024.
"For that we need to seriously work on preparing it," he said. This World Water Day celebration in 2022 takes the theme 'MANTAB: Conserving groundwater to be sustainable', which was adopted from the international theme 'Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible' which contains the meaning of "Groundwater: Making the invisible visible. This theme is a a major agenda launched at the 9th World Water Forum in Senegal in March 2022 developed by the United Nations and the World Bank on water.(Setyorini/ IST )
