One of the researchers from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering UI, Dr. Cindy Rianti Priadi, S.T., M.Sc., managed to achieve as a scientist and academician whose writing was successfully published in 32 Selected Articles Ahead of the 2024 Election “Building Inclusive and Progressive Debates” in the 6th series of The Conversation Indonesia (TCI).
Dr. Cindy’s article complements the 31 other articles published by TCI on its 6th anniversary. In writing this article, Dr. Cindy together with two other researchers, Juliet Willetts, University of Technology Sydney, and Timothy Foster, Institute for Sustainable Futures, examined a research entitled “Indonesians Must Spend Rp14.5 Trillion per Year for Drinking Water from Wells”.
“Fulfillment of access to drinking water to the community is still a problem to date, especially access or supply of clean drinking water to people whose reach is fairly difficult is also a critical problem to date. Usually, people who cannot be reached by the government through PDAM or piped water will carry out water self-sufficiency at a fairly high annual cost, stepping on 14.5 trillion. If the use of water self-sufficiency continues without clear governance, of course, its sustainability will be threatened without any other options available,” said Dr. Cindy.
The government, as a policymaker, needs to design various frameworks to solve this problem. Several proposals can be made, namely (!) massively supporting the improvement of water self-sufficiency through improving the infrastructure of unprotected dug wells, (2) managing water sources with a risk-based management approach starting from policies and regulations related to conservation, (3) providing education and promotion to the public about the importance of safe drinking water treatment in households.
“Piped drinking water or not, our priority is to provide safe drinking water to all levels of Indonesian society for a healthy and empowered Indonesian society,” continued Dr. Cindy.
Her article was first published on February 19, 2022, and was selected as the best article and published by TCI in 2023 as a special gift for TCI’s 6th anniversary. Dr. Cindy also hopes that this article can become a framework of goals to build a healthier and more empowered Indonesia, which hopefully can also be implemented by future leaders.
The Dean of FTUI, Prof. Dr. Heri Hermansyah, S.T., M.Eng., IPU, said “The idea of realizing inclusive and sustainable prosperity for Indonesia in the future issued by the FTUI DTS Lecturer must be a trigger for our enthusiasm for FTUI lecturers, staff, and students in providing benefits for the realization of 2030 sustainable development. Not only the problem of drinking water, there are still many other problems that we need to think about together so that Indonesia can be healthier, more advanced, and independent in all aspects of life, “he said.
The authors in this book convey and represent important issues as material to be raised and fought for to realize an advanced and prosperous Indonesia, using the framework of sustainable development goals, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), point 6.1, which stipulates that the entire world population has access to safe water by 2030.
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Public Communication Bureau
Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia