Community Behavior, Management and Water Security: Present and Future

The COVID-19 pandemic that hit Indonesia and the rest of the world affected conditions related to water, food, and energy and affected the government's ability to guarantee water, food and energy security nationally, in the new normality period. "It needs to be structured, governance, and re-coordination to achieve the SDGs target," said Dr. L.T. Handoko as the Head of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) in the Regional Webinar "Water - Food - Energy Security Towards SDGS in New Normal Era" on Thursday, July 23, 2020.


Handoko said, LIPI as a research and innovation institution was very supportive in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets, especially related to water, food, and energy. "Through this webinar the media is expected to understand how the relationship between the three sectors of water, food and energy in achieving sustainable development targets during and post pandemic," he explained. "LIPI is one of the first research institutions in the country currently under the coordination of BRIN and the Ministry of Research and Technology which is always ready to initiate and facilitate research and innovation to increase the contribution of our nation in solving various problems related to food, water and energy," he added.


He conveyed that currently LIPI invited all stakeholders to work together by opening all infrastructure, both human resources and research equipment at LIPI, which can be used together by academics, government and industry both small and large. "This collaboration is expected to strengthen research related to these three things as well as the most important thing is to strengthen the capacity of human resources and institutions to manage, utilize local resources based on science and research and develop policies based on science based policy, especially amid uncertain conditions. during and after the pandemic, "explained Handoko.

Meanwhile Prof. Dr. Ignasius D.A. Sutapa, M.Sc. as Executive Director of the Asia Pacific Center for Ecohydrology (APCE) said that we are currently facing challenges and problems in water security, especially in the foreseeable future. "Climate change will affect five other issues, water conflicts, water pollution, loss of biodiversity, droughts and floods, lack of clean water and sanitation. Future conditions in the Asia Pacific including Indonesia will face water stress until 2040. Water security will be vulnerable if significant efforts are not made, "he explained


The Research Professor of the Limnology Research Center further explained that water contributes to the development which varies greatly in various sectors because almost all are related to water resources. "Currently, the whole world and Indonesia are affected by COVID-19, this changes people's behavior and water in the future not only resources but becomes an important asset because it is related to food and energy so our mindset must be improved in the future," said Ignas.

Ignas added, the water development plan by paying attention to source components, operator components and consumer components must be discussed in full and in full, now is the time to act because water resources will affect water quality. "The concept of ecohydrology is increasingly needed because to integrate ecology, hydrology, ecotechnology and culture, it must be utilized and synergized to manage water resources so that all components become our common concern," he said. "COVID-19 has changed a lot of things, including people behavior, consumption adjustments, priority orders, but most importantly we understand the context of this water resource is not infinite so we need comprehensive approaches," concluded Ignas. (Yo ed SL)