Output-Based Aid in Indonesia: Improved Access to Water Services for Poor Households in Western Jakarta

Jakarta’s water supply has been managed by concessionaires since 1998. However, following the impact of the Asian Financial Crisis, investment in network expansion has been severely curtailed and poor households in particular have not been able to access individual or group piped connections.

Many of the urban poor also live in illegal or informal slum communities where such access is not permitted. As a result poor households have had to rely on very expensive supply from informal water vendors or the use of polluted groundwater. This paper reviews experience with a pilot output-based aid (OBA) project which aims to provide sustainable access to safe and affordable piped water services to low-income households in six legal and illegal/informal communities in western Jakarta.

Over 5,000 households have been connected to the network and the project is now starting a second phase which will focus exclusively on informal or slum communities.