Massive Water Privatization Program to End in Jakarta After 18 Years

A massive water privatization program is to end in Jakarta after 18 years. The Supreme Court has ruled that “two private water companies inadequately served the residents of the world's second-largest metropolitan area. Jakarta's water utility was privatized 20 years ago in the last years of the Suharto military dictatorship, when the former president awarded contracts to two joint ventures, one of which included his son's company. A coalition of activists, trade unions and Jakarta residents filed a class-action lawsuit in 2012 claiming that the companies failed to guarantee people's right to clean water. The companies both engaged in price differentiation that disproportionately taxed low-income residents and afforded them huge profits. The coalition won its case in the Jakarta District Court in 2015, but it took two more years for the Supreme Court to uphold its constitutionality.”