Water Sector

Overview

The water sector in Indonesia faces significant challenges, including inadequate infrastructure, limited access to clean water, and vulnerability to climate change impacts. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has identified water security as a priority sector in Indonesia's country programme document (CPD), aiming to enhance resilience and to ensure sustainable water management. However, there exists a substantial financing gap to meet the country's water infrastructure and climate goals. Efforts to bridge this financing gap are crucial to ensuring equitable access to clean water for all communities, and to improve climate resilience.

Sector-Specific GCF Eligibility

The first step to begin preparing for a project's funding proposal, is determining whether the project proponents have sufficient knowledge, resources, and tools at disposal. An eligibility survey tool has been developed in the form of a self-assessment questionnaire that can be taken on the following page: Link. The survey includes information on the priority sectors in Indonesia, which include the water sector.

Sector Expertise

For a successful funding proposal, it is necessary that appropriate professional experience of the underlying technologies in the water sector is included. To strengthen the proposal and increase chances of succeeding in obtaining funding from the GCF, as well as to be able to answer technical questions as they arise, assistance and support from experts in the field of project are needed. A potential pool of experts that may support your proposal is provided in form of a Knowledge Expert Pool at GCF Knowledge Platform on the Indonesian NDA website. By searching for certain expertise (e.g. water), experts with the respective expertise can be identified. Identifies experts can be directly contacted via the platform: Link

Sector specific considerations for applying to GCF

Alignment to sector specific aspects, policies and regulations

A project in the water sector must be aligned to the latest water-related policies and regulations from Indonesia, and ideally, the concept/proposal would build onto the country's strategies and ambitions in the water sector. Alignment can be ensured by reviewing Indonesia's latest NDC submission, and by reviewing the country's most up-to-date CPD as published by the GCF. Depending on the nature of the project, other sector-specific regulations may be important to look into. In the case of interlinkages with energy, food or Forestry and other land use (FOLU) sectors, separate guidance documents can be found on Link. Additional documents that shape the country's strategies, particularly in regard to the water sector, include but are not limited to:

• National long-term development plan (2005-2025)
• National medium-term development plan (2020-2024)
• Long-term strategy for low carbon and climate resilience 2050
• National Water Resources Management Policy (Polarisasi Pengelolaan Sumber Daya Air)
• Indonesian Water Law (No. 17/2019 on Water Resources)
• National Action Plan for Climate Change Adaptation (RAN-API) (2014)
• Relevant ministerial strategic plans

The Indonesian ministries directly linked to the water sector include but are not limited to:

• Ministry of Public Works (Kementerian Pekerjaan Umum - PU)
• Ministry of Environment and Forestry (Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan - KLHK)
• Ministry of Agriculture (Kementerian Pertanian)
• Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (Kementerian Energi dan Sumber Daya Mineral - ESDM)
• Ministry of National Development Planning (Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Nasional - BAPPENAS)

Indonesia's NDC prioritizes the water sector in terms of production and consumption, with planned mitigation actions including improving agricultural water efficiency, and improving the water management in peatland to reduce its decomposition. Adaptation measures additionally include improving the sustainability of agriculture and forests through better water and watershed management, and water conservation. These measures improve Indonesia's climate resilience

Concept and Proposal development

Indonesian GCF priorities are listed in the CPD of Indonesia (find on: Link), and they fall in-line with Indonesia's NDC, with additional focus on the potential hazards in the water access and marine and coastal areas that could be caused by extreme climate. For more information on the GCF's focus areas and investment framework, the practical guide can be reviewed on: Link. In the practical guide, the detailed steps needed to prepare and submit a concept note and funding proposal are included. Additionally, Indonesia-specific GCF investment criteria can be found in the CPD (see pages 48-50).

Water Sector: Specific guidance by the GCF

The GCF has published sector-specific documents that draw out pathways leading to transformative change within these sectors, with some of these sectors falling under the scope of water. By familiarising oneself with the priorities and the focus areas of the GCF, the project's alignment with the GCF's climate goals is ensured, and the project work is aligned with the paradigm shift pathways for transformational contributions to both national and international climate ambitions. Additionally, barriers expected to hinder the progress in each of the listed sectors are presented in the guides, which can help to better understand and anticipate the challenges possibly awaiting as project development progresses.

The documents as published by GCF can be reviewed for the detailed actions to bring the country onto each of the paradigm shift pathways (link). The following table lists out some of the potential barriers from the sectors related to water, as relevant to the Indonesian context.

In the case a project is eligible to use the simple application process (see: practical guide page #), the sectoral information within the SAP technical guidelines can be used (links). These guides discuss paradigm shifts, but they also list out indicators for impact measurement, and examples.

Water Sector: Specific technical considerations

When developing project concepts for the water sector, some technical aspects should be considered to ensure accurate estimation of the project's mitigation and adaptation potentials, and to successfully obtain funding. Some of the key aspects to take into consideration are elaborated in the following points:

• Data Availability: In the water sector, obtaining accurate data can be challenging due to the variety of water use sectors, including agriculture, industry, and domestic consumption. To accurately define baseline water usage and project future demands, water consumption from different sources must be accounted for, as well as infrastructure efficiency. Additionally, baseline scenarios should reflect current water management policies, expected climate impacts, and trends in water usage and conservation practices
• Project Boundaries:Defining project boundaries is critical to ensure that only the processes or equipment linked to the specific project are included in the calculations
• Technology Performance:Different technologies and especially new ones can present high uncertainty in terms of performance and risk of failure. Careful assessments must take place to provide clarifications on potential impacts and risks
• Rebound Effects and Leakage: Improvements that lead to improved efficiency often lead to increased demand, known as rebound effects, which must be considered in the calculations. At the same time, some activities like replacement of equipment can cause emissions to shift elsewhere, or to leak. Therefore, when estimating mitigation potentials, such indirect impacts must be accounted for
• Calculations: In any instance where calculations are performed to provide project-related estimations, clear and detailed explanations of all calculation methods, assumptions, and data used is crucial. Additionally, conservative numbers should be used to avoid overestimations

GCF Project Examples

As success stories, the documents of some of the projects that have successfully received GCF funding in or including Indonesia, and are currently undergoing implementation in the water sector can be reviewed. These examples include (all with links):

Video Resources