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Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] Date: 17 January 2016, At: 23:26
Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies
ISSN: 0007-4918 (Print) 1472-7234 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbie20
Water Issues in Southeast Asia: Present Trends
and Future Directions
Paula Hanasz
To cite this article: Paula Hanasz (2014) Water Issues in Southeast Asia: Present Trends and Future Directions, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 50:1, 144-145, DOI: 10.1080/00074918.2014.896301
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00074918.2014.896301
Published online: 24 Mar 2014.
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144 Book Reviews
Water Issues in Southeast Asia: Present Trends and Future Directions. Edited by Lee Poh Onn. Singapore: Institute of Southeast
Asian Studies, 2012. Pp. xiv + 341. Paperback: $49.90.
The global freshwater scarcity crisis is too often and too simplistically conceptu-alised as one of environmental shortcomings, requiring hydroengineering solu-tions that address only the supply side of the problem. It is therefore refreshing that Water Issues in Southeast Asia conveys a more sophisticated understanding of water scarcity. Throughout the 12 chapters of this edited volume, water scar-city is implicitly understood as a consequence of inequitable distribution of water resources, weak governance, and ill-considered prioritisation of competing water
Urbanization in Southeast Asia: Issues and Impacts. Edited by Yap Kioe Sheng and Moe Thuzar. Singapore: Institute of Southeast
Asian Studies, 2012. Pp. xv + 387. Paperback: $45.90.
Urbanisation has become a crucial issue in Southeast Asia, as decentralisation and rapid economic growth continue to create new socio-economic and environmen-tal issues in the region. In Indonesia, in particular, the government’s
decentrali-sation reforms, which sought to promote eficient governance, have led to poor
public services, a lack of coordination between central and local governments, and a subsequent low proportion of green urban space.
This book attempts to identify the challenges of urbanisation in Southeast Asia and promote strategies for sustainable economic growth. Several of its
chap-ters relate speciically to Indonesia’s development, such as chapter 9, by Victor
R. Savage, which proposes that urban planners, in adapting to climate change,
could tackle Jakarta’s vulnerability to looding and food insecurity by focusing on
demographics, population size and growth, and infrastructure quality, and chap-ter 7, by Tan Ern Ser, which suggests that developers of public housing in Indone-sia could learn from Singapore’s Housing and Development Board communities.
The book also emphasises the importance of networks and cooperation among cities and local governments, and that environmental improvement in Southeast Asian cities should concern not only policies and regulation but also the politics and governance of policymaking itself. The success of Jakarta’s master plan 2010– 2030, for example, which, among other priorities, aims to reclaim natural green space, will depend largely on the local government’s capacity to implement it.
Overall, the book offers an excellent overview of the state of current urban landscape development in Southeast Asia. However, it lacks in-depth socio-polit-ical and economic analysis, so scholars and practitioners would perhaps be best using it as a brief academic introduction to the cities in the region. Nevertheless, it would be valuable reading for urban planners, local governments, and other stakeholders.
Adiwan Fahlan Aritenang
Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology
© 2014 Adiwan Fahlan Aritenang
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00074918.2014.896312
Book Reviews 145
uses. The collection of articles focuses almost entirely on the regulatory and insti-tutional frameworks for water-sector management in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Recurring themes include the privatisation of water services (especially by means of public–private partnerships, which seem to have had some moderate success in the water sectors of several Southeast Asian countries); centralised versus decentralised management; the role of non-government organisations; complications for political and legal reform; rapid urbanisation; and the wicked problem of reconciling the competing interests of multiple users. The fashion-able approach of integrated water-resource management is sidelined by most of
the chapters, in favour of locally appropriate solutions and experiences.
Ground-water depletion, hydropower development, and transboundary river disputes also receive little attention.
The single chapter on Indonesia is by Budhi Santoso, a water expert from the National Development Planning Agency, and focuses on management reform. It provides a summary of Indonesia’s water sources and the legal framework in which they operate. It outlines the problems of water pricing; water shortages due to seasonal and rainfall variations; river basin damage from environmental
deg-radation; and the conlicts between growing agricultural, industrial, and munici -pal water uses. This overview provides the basis for a discussion of water-sector developments and reforms undertaken since the mid-1990s. The chapter is dense
with facts and igures, and concludes that water is an integral part of sustainable
development. Further changes need to occur, Santoso argues, in the climate of investment, governance, and infrastructure if current growth performance is to deliver the sustained, quality development that Indonesia desires.
Water Issues in Southeast Asia arose out of a forum on regional water issues held at the Institute of Southeast Studies, in Singapore, in late 2005. The papers presented have been subsequently updated and revised for publication, yet the collection as a whole feels uneven in the degree of analysis, research, and com-prehensiveness. Some chapters seem like mere elaborations of presentation notes, whereas others are thoroughly referenced, elegantly written, and make sound, original arguments. Nonetheless, the book provides a good synopsis of water-sector governance in Southeast Asia and holds some important lessons for
poli-cymakers, while its numerous tables, igures, information boxes, and photos
provide a useful reference.
Paula Hanasz
The Australian National University
© 2014 Paula Hanasz
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00074918.2014.896301
Breaking Barriers: Portraits of Inspiring Chinese-Indonesian Women. By Aimee Dawis. Singapore: Tuttle, 2014. Pp. 160. Paperback: $15.95.
This new book by Aimee Dawis, her second on the Chinese diaspora in Indonesia,
is a ine collection of interviews with women across the spectrum of contempo -rary Indonesian society. It presents an important social theme set against a com-plex backdrop of the somewhat troubled recent history of Indonesians of Chinese
