Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – Indonesia will struggle to provide adequate sanitation and clean water to 72.5 percent of its population by 2015 in accordance with its commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), experts said Friday.

Nugroho Tri Utomo from the National Development Planning Board said that although half the allocated timeframe to reach the MGDs by 2015 had passed, Indonesia's achievements in this area where not on target.

In 1990, only 45 percent of Indonesia's total population of 178 million had access to adequate sanitation facilities.

The latest survey into the country's social and economic conditions conducted by the Central Statistics Agency indicates that only 55 percent of the population currently has access to adequate sanitation facilities.

If Indonesia was on track to achieve its MGDs target, the figure would need to be considerably higher, Nugroho told The Jakarta Post.

"We are not yet on track to meet our basic sanitation target as part of our commitment to ensuring environmental sustainability under the MGDs," he said.

"The problem is that sanitation is not yet the government's top priority, despite the fact poor sanitation can lead to the decreasing quality of human resources," he said.

It is currently estimated that 50 out of every 1,000 children aged below five years in Indonesia die of diarrhea as a result of poor sanitation.

Poor sanitation has also hampered the improvement of Indonesia's Human Development Index (HDI). In 2006, Indonesia's index was 0.711, ranking the country in 108th position out of 177 countries surveyed.

Nugroho said that although regional autonomy resulted in the central government handing over the responsibility of improving sanitation to local administrations, local leaders felt funds and support were lacking.

"If more of the budget was spent on sanitation, there would be many benefits, such as a reduction in diseases, meaning the government would have less to spend on health," he said.

Nugroho said that for Indonesia to meet its MDGs target, the government would need to spend at least Rp 4.5 trillion (approximately US$495 million) per year on improving sanitation. Its current expenditure in this area is Rp 500 billion.

Water and sanitation specialist Sofyan Iskandar said assistance would be required from all stakeholders, including in the private and public sectors, in order to develop sanitation facilities.

He said that although many parties had contributed to the improvement of the country's sanitation facilities, not enough had been done.

"In building sanitation infrastructure, related stakeholders should consider the needs of local communities. They should... ensure the facilities are appropriate for each community," Sofyan said.

He said local communities should also be provided with relevant technical assistance after sanitation facilities were improved in their areas.