Wading Through Indonesia's New Water Resources Law

October has been a very busy month for the Indonesian government. Besides issuing the implementing regulation on Language Law and new regulations on upstream data management and data localisation requirement, the government also enacted a new law on water resources¹ ("2019 Law"), which replaced the previous Law No. 11 of 1974 on Irrigation ("1974 Law"). Judging from the length of time between the old law and the new law, many would say this law is long overdue.

The 1974 Law itself was revived in 2015 when the Constitutional Court² annulled a 2004 law governing utilisation of water resources ("2004 Law").³ In its ruling, the Constitutional Court found that the 2004 Law have failed to accommodate the state's role in controlling and managing water for public interest, as mandated under the 1945 Constitution. Following this ruling, the government also enacted two implementing regulations containing practical rules that the industry desperately needs, which were not