Basin Water Resources Management Planning in Indonesia

Strengthening basin-level water resources planning in five basins across Indonesia

BWRMP supported the Government of Indonesia in preparing basin water resources management plans for five priority river basins, as part of the World Bank’s Water Resources and Irrigation Sector Management Program (WISMP), Phase 2.

Effective management of Indonesia’s water resources depends on sound, basin-level planning that can guide the allocation, development, and protection of water across sectors and administrative boundaries. Under the Basin Water Resources Management Planning (BWRMP) component of WISMP 2, technical assistance was provided to the Directorate General of Water Resources, Ministry of Public Works and Housing, to prepare integrated water resources management plans and strengthen planning tools for five river basins: Sumbawa, Toba Asahan, Saddang, Pemali Comal, and Cisadea Cibareno.

These five basins were selected for their strategic importance to regional water security and economic development, spanning a wide range of hydrological and institutional contexts, from the volcanic lake system of Toba Asahan in North Sumatra to the densely populated, agriculture dependent basins of Java such as Pemali Comal. This diversity meant that planning tools had to be robust enough to apply consistently across very different geographic, administrative, and climatic conditions.

BWRMP built on more than two decades of basin planning experience in Indonesia, including earlier World Bank and government led initiatives such as the Basin Water Resources Planning (BWRP) studies of the 1990s and the first phase of WISMP (2002 to 2004), which had already introduced the RIBASIM (River Basin Simulation) modelling approach in basins like Jratunseluna and Ciliwung Cisadane. Under WISMP 2, this modelling framework was extended and refined for the five new priority basins, generating water balance and allocation scenarios, covering water districts, inflow variability, and total versus net water availability, that gave planners and decision-makers a quantitative, evidence-based foundation for basin management plans.

The project was part of the broader WISMP Phase 2 program, which ran from 2013 to 2018 across 13 provinces and 101 districts, consolidating the water resources and irrigation sector following Indonesia’s decentralization reforms under the 2004 Water Law. Alongside basin planning, WISMP 2 supported the strengthening of Water User Associations and Federations, improved participatory irrigation management, and, through an added component, the strengthening of Jatiluhur irrigation management. The long term goal of the program was to increase economic growth and reduce poverty in rural Indonesia by improving the sustainability of decentralized irrigation and water resources management and increasing agricultural productivity.

The project brought together national and local institutions, including provincial and district Dinas PU (Public Works) offices and Bappenas (the National Development Planning Agency), to build a shared, evidence-based vision for how water resources should be managed and protected in each basin, laying the groundwork for more resilient and better coordinated water planning across Indonesia.

BWRMP contributed to strengthening evidence-based basin planning by:

• Preparing Basin Water Resources Management Plans for five priority river basins across Indonesia, using RIBASIM based water balance modelling to inform allocation decisions.
• Strengthening the institutional capacity of national and provincial water resources agencies to develop and apply basin planning tools, including hands on training in hydrological modelling techniques.
• Supporting coordination between central government, provincial and district authorities, and local water user institutions in the application of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles.
• Contributing to the broader goals of the Water Resources and Irrigation Sector Management Program (WISMP) to improve basin water resource and irrigation management across Indonesia.