Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government is preparing two million house connections of drinking water with an investment of Rp10 trillion in 2011, Drinking Water Development Director of Urban Directorate General of the Public Works Ministry Danny Sutjiono said here Tuesday.

After meeting investors on the prospects and ethics of sustainable water business, he said the installation of household drinking water pipelines is part of efforts to raise the people`s access to safe and sustainable drinking water resources.

Danny said that up to 2009 only 47.6 pct of the population had access to safe drinking water.

The government, he said, will raise the supply of drinking water by 21 pct by 2015 which is the target of the MDGs in lowering half of the proportion of the population without access to safe and sustainable drinking water resources

"For that purpose, 8.5 million household connections need to be installed up to 2015, which would cost a total of Rp46.5 trillion,"he said.

Of the total investment to build 8.5 million connections, he said, the government can only provide Rp12 trillion and the rest is expected from other funding schemes.

"Therefore we are inviting private parties to make an investment, including small scale investment ranging from Rp30 billion to Rp50 billion," he said.(*)
(H-NG/H-YH)

Editor: Ruslan Burhani
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