Giving Back State Budget to People, Vice Minister Arcandra Hands Over PJU-TS and Artesian Wells in Malang

MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES

REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

PRESS RELEASE

NUMBER: 618.Pers/04/SJI/2019

Dated: 16th October 2019

Giving Back State Budget to People, Vice Minister Arcandra Hands Over PJU-TS and Artesian Wells in Malang

As a follow-up to President Joko Widodo's instruction to give back the State Budget (APBN) as much as possible to the people, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (EMR) has allocated more than 50% of its budget for programs that directly meet people's needs. Two of these programs are Solar-Powered Public Lighting System (PJU-TS) and artesian wells for the people of Malang Regency, East Java Province as handed over by Vice Minister Arcandra Tahar, today, Wednesday (16/10).

Vice Minister Arcandra hopes the government's aid will be taken care of so that they can be used to the maximum and for a long time. "The Ministry of EMR has given away this public facility of PJU-TS (so) please take good care, this facility belongs to all of us, funded by our money too, please care for it, don't let the lights go after only a few months," Arcandra said.

According to Arcandra, if the facility is maintained well, it can be used for a longer period. "Who will enjoy the facility(?), We will, and whose responsibility is it to care for it(?), Ours," Arcandra continued.

For easy monitoring and supervision, Arcandra has suggested that the PJU-TS be placed near public or social facilty, so when it is broken, the damage will immediately be known.

"If possible, these PJU-TS should be placed near public facility and infrastructure, for example in front of a mosque, a church, in the front of a village office, (at these locations) the lights will certainly be taken care of," said Arcandra.

The Ministry of EMR through its Directorate General of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation has given away PJU-TS at 50,000 spots between 2016 and 2018. In 2019, the PJU-TS program is carried out at 31 provinces for 22,500 spots, 900 of which are to be built in Malang Regency and Malang City, East Java.

For providing clean water, the Ministry through its Center for Groundwater Survey and Environmental Geology has given eight units of artesian wells to the residents of Malang Regency who find it difficult to get clean water, with 4 units given to residents of Pagak Subdistrict, 3 units to Bantur, and Donomulyo 1 unit.

The program to provide clean water via artesian wells was started in early 2000's. Between 2005 and 2018, as many as 2,288 units of artesian wells had been constructed to serve the clean water need of approximately 6.6 million people who live in areas with difficult access to clean water spreading from Sabang to Merauke. (SF)

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