Our Ethics to our water: Indonesian’s Ethical Values towards Water and Its Management

Sulistiyowati, Eka (2015) Our Ethics to our water: Indonesian’s Ethical Values towards Water and Its Management. Proceeding The 7th International Graduate Students and Scholars Conference in Indonesia. pp. 296-302. ISSN 978-602-8683-06-7

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Abstract

History tells us that the ability to manage water and conquer water sources determine how a civilization flourished and gained its power. Since a long time ago, freshwater has been exploited to create vast area of agricultural and industrial lands that bring economic growth. Yet today, human being and other species have to cope with serious water problems, such as decreased precipitation, depleted freshwater reservoir, increased pollution, and raised sea level. Unfortunately, our wisdom in treating water in so many ways has been changed. Previously, water was seen as a sacred element that belongs to God, today, people take it for granted; that water is just natural resource subject to exploitation. This brings an interesting question: do we –people in Indonesia- still have remaining local knowledge and wisdom which help us to treat water ethically and morally as a precious resource? Along with that question, this paper answers how and why unethical and abusive actions to water occur, and what factors influencing it.These questions are addressed by looking at existing literatures on local values, norms, and traditional practices in water management in Indonesia, and examining theoretical perspectives on how the values changed. This research paper is developed by studying the cases of water management in Java and Bali, using prominent literature such as Beatty (1999) and Lansing (1987).

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