Community Resistance in a Water Treatment Project: Experiences of a Coastal Community in Banyuwangi, East Java

Water pollution and fish depletion have become increasingly visible as serious issues of the coastal areas of Indonesia. Despite a desire for water pollution issues to be addressed, the government and local peoples have been faced with problems with the operation of the water treatment project in Banyuwangi, East Java. This study aims to investigate the reason why people reject water treatment project and clarify the information disparity of local that has not been solved during the development of the project. Based on the analysis of 81 respondents from a field survey in 2014, the results show that people's existence on the coastline and their daily livelihood is elemental to consider before a decision to build water treatment can be made. Education, occupation, and distance from project site seem to have important roles in the preference for support or opposition. Most of the respondent who rejected the program was fishermen who stay more than 15 years, with low education, and reside less than 100 m from the project. The perception of information clarity regarding the perceived risk and who should bear the risk were not fully address by government. The major argument for not support the programs were related to house damaged during the development, distance to settlement, socialization, smell problem, and live hood obstruction concern. Most of the respondent also agreed that information regarding the project was not well delivered. Benefit and the risk of the project were not properly address to the locals. The government has to ensure that the combination of coastal people and environmental interest can accommodate one another. In the Muncar case, the government needed to make an effort to gauge the costal inhabitants perception of building a water treatment program before the project even began. Finally, this paper concludes that the government should deliver incentives to address the consequences of the program and solve information disparity in order to build a credible commitment toward this governmental policy