An article by Lim Mei Ming, The Jakarta Post.

In the era of globalization, Indonesia seems to have become one of the best participants, as evinced in many multilateral conventions, regional and international forums it has held.

However, there is one development sector where our government has missed the thread of global productivity competition, related to energy management, agriculture, irrigation, fisheries, rivers and water ecosystems.

Historically, among a number of energy plantation alternatives, large dams seem to have been considered a national solution for energy, irrigation and flood control.

In the 2008 national large dam seminar in Jakarta, the government promoted hydropower as the easiest and cheapest energy alternative, considering our “unlimited” water supply.

Every year, large and small dams have been built by foreign institutional loans to meet fast-growing electricity demand.

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