Indonesia Platform Meeting: insights into a promising future for the Dutch – Indonesian water sector

“The water sector plays a critical role in Indonesia’s well-being and is fundamental for development across multiple dimensions,” stated Royhan Wahab, Minister Counsellor for Economic Cooperation at the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague. Speaking about the longstanding Dutch-Indonesian water cooperation, he outlined key priorities for future collaboration: establishing a national roadmap for sustainable water management; building Indonesia’s giant seawall system; creating Centres of Excellence for Water Management; improving drinking water systems through lake and seawater conversion and strengthening existing partnerships.

The counsellors’ enthusiasm and ambitious words set the tone for the Platform Meeting, which reflected on past achievements and future opportunities and through focussed break-out sessions explored themes such as Nature-based Solutions (NBS), the BlueDeal, Lowland Development and Irrigation and the Welang River Basin Transformation Project.

Deep dive sessions

Nature-based Solutions: Turning theory into practice

“Indonesia has demonstrated a strong commitment to implementing NbS, incorporating them into their national midterm development plan for 2025-2029 and is one of the focuses under for the Dutch-Indonesian water collaboration,” begins Tom Wilms from Witteveen + Bos during his breakout session on NbS implementation guidelines for the Indonesian government. “Despite this enthusiasm and political backing, the Indonesian government faces challenges in practical implementation of NbS.”
To bridge this gap between theory and practice, Dutch and Indonesian experts will support the Indonesian Ministries of National Development Planning (Bappenas) and Public Works (PU) by integrating NbS into two guideline documents: a strategic guideline for flood risk management and a technical guideline for establishing river planning criteria. The support is the result of an ongoing fruitful collaboration between the Asian Development Bank and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency and will be provided by experts from Witteveen + Bos, Deltares and Royal Haskoning DHV.

However, translating these guidelines from theory into practice remains a challenge. During the plenary discussion, several key points emerged to support implementation:

• Create synergies with existing local NbS projects to benefit from their experiences and avoid reinventing the wheel.
• Recognise that whilst government guidelines provide the framework, local communities, farmers and the private sector have been implementing NbS for generations.
• This requires rethinking traditional partnership models to better support small-scale, community-driven initiatives alongside larger governmental programmes.
  Invest time in building strong political relationships, as these connections often prove crucial for turning plans into reality.

Welang River Basin Transformation

In East Java, the Welang River serves as a vital water source for local communities. However, urban growth has introduced significant challenges, including flooding, erosion, pollution and water distribution issues. Maarten Onneweer, from AidEnvironment, spoke about the Welang River Basin Transformation Project: an Indonesian-Dutch collaborative project demonstrating how grassroots participation can effectively address these water management challenges. “By uniting local residents, government officials, the private sector and environmental specialists, we have successfully implemented NbS through an integrated, participatory approach,” shared Onneweer. “Now it’s time to scale up to other watersheds in Java. Opportunities for follow-up were discussed with the local authorities, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.”
During the plenary discussion, a common dilemma for scaling up such projects was identified: quantifying the impact of NbS. Whilst these small-scale interventions collectively appear to significantly improve catchment water management, the evidence often remains anecdotal. To justify similar approaches elsewhere, it’s crucial to turn practice into theory and learn from implemented examples, incorporating these lessons into a scaling-up strategy for other watersheds across Indonesia.

Blue Deal Indonesia

The Blue Deal, running from 2018 to 2030, brings together Dutch Water Authorities with local governments around the world in providing 20 million people access to clean, safe water. “Since 2023, the Blue Deal has officially become part of the water cooperation between the Netherlands and Indonesia,” explains Robin Bos from Dutch Water Board Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier. “We currently focus on flood risk, coastal zone and wastewater management in Tangerang, Pekalongan and Semarang, but we’re also open to collaborations in other regions connected to our projects,”

The programme operates across three layers of water governance— knowledge, institutional and relational—whilst providing advice, training and facilitating the implementation of practical solutions. One example is a demonstration project in the Batik industry to address water pollution. “Drawing from past experiences, we observed that local governments often struggle to manage large-scale wastewater treatment facilities,” notes Bos. “In response, we’re initiating a small-scale and low-tech pilot project using NbS to treat Batik industry wastewater.” This initiative complements a recently funded Partners for Water subsidy scheme project, which also tackles water pollution in the Batik industry.

A key factor to their success? Bos emphasizes the importance of working simultaneously at different scales, combining top-down and bottom-up approaches. “Strong relationships with relevant officials and stakeholders are essential. If they don’t know your project, if they don’t know you, it can be very difficult to take steps with the local government.”

Lowland development and irrigation: knowledge exchange

Irrigated lowland areas play a crucial role in Indonesia’s journey towards the national priority of food independence. The Netherlands, with its historical expertise in water management, has been a key partner in this quest. However, valuable knowledge of lowland development resides primarily with experienced older professionals both countries. To prevent this expertise from being lost, it is critical to actively transfer it to the next generation of water managers.

During this breakout session, Sur Suryadi from IHE Delft shared historical initiatives in lowland development, providing insights into the ongoing collaboration in Dadahup, Kalimantan and discussed knowledge exchange strategies. A lively discussion took place among the participants on strategies for effectively transferring essential lowland expertise to future water managers. This topic will be further developed in the coming year with the Ministry of Public Works and local knowledge institutions.

Building relationships for the future

The day’s deep dive into Dutch-Indonesian water collaborations concluded with networking and drinks, underscoring a key insight: sustainable water management is achieved through genuine relationship-building across all levels. Success requires bringing together diverse voices—from local communities to government officials. While this inclusive approach may be more complex, it yields more sustainable and far-reaching results, creating the foundation for lasting impact.