Minister Of Public Works Emphasizes The Importance Of Water Resources Infrastructure To Capai Swasembada Food

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Public Works encourages the development and management of water resource infrastructure (SDA) as an important pillar in realizing the vision of Indonesia Gold 2045. Given, water is the main foundation in achieving food self-sufficiency.

As a basic need for humans, food cannot be separated from the vital role of water that supports the entire chain of agricultural production.

PU Minister Dody Hanggodo emphasized the urgency of the existence of natural resources infrastructure in supporting national food security.

Dody reminded the importance of the development of solid SDA infrastructure, both physically and with a vision, to deal with urbanization and climate change.

Director General of SDA Lilik Retno Cahyadiningsih said that the vital role of water in realizing food self-sufficiency when representing Minister Dody in a web seminar (webinar) with the theme "Air for the Country" held by the Ministry of Public Works online, Monday, June 16.

"In the context of development, water is the backbone of food self-sufficiency. So, its management must be a national priority," Lilik said as quoted from his written statement, Tuesday, June 17.

On that occasion, Lilik stated that Indonesia faced a number of serious challenges, including inequality in water distribution, impacts of climate change, degradation of natural resources and conflicts of inter-sector utilization.

The reason is, water and food security cannot be achieved without state intervention. Therefore, providing water for people's agricultural irrigation and basic consumption must be a common priority.

In order to realize food self-sufficiency as stated in Astacita, President Prabowo has issued Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 2 of 2025 concerning the Acceleration of Development, Improvement, Rehabilitation and Operations and Maintenance of the Irrigation Network to Support Food Swasembada.

Currently, the Ministry of Public Works is optimizing 665,485 hectares of agricultural land in 14 provinces and strengthening irrigation networks that will support the second planting season.

"We are targeting that by 2029, the percentage of functional rice fields will increase to 62.37 percent, reservoir-based irrigation services 16.57 percent and water utilization efficiency to reach 0.43 US dollars per cubic meter," he said.

According to Lilik, cross-sectoral collaboration through the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach is needed to achieve this target.

"No one party can work alone. The pentahelix collaboration between the government, academics, farmers, the private sector, and civil society is the key to maintaining a balance between conservation, utilization and control of water damaged power," he explained.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Environment Hanif Faisol Nurofiq who was present as a speaker at the webinar also emphasized the importance of water in life.

Hanif assessed that all levels of society have a big responsibility in maintaining water, sanitation and natural sustainability for future generations.

"I invite all Indonesian people to maintain water as a shared legacy that must be maintained and managed together," he said.