Berita

Yogyakarta—After the successes of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), numerous countries across the globe have been adopting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since 2015 that have 17 ambitious goals to be attained. One out of the goals pertaining to water resource management is Goal number 6, that is Water and Sanitation for All. To meet this goal, according to Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, United Nations, there are several main issues to be addressed encompassing safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, water quality, water-related eco-systems, integrated water resource management and water efficiency. As such, water is a primary factor to boost the economic growth since it is deemed crucial to produce the better quality of food and to enhance sustainable energy, necessitating the good quality of water and irrigation process as well as bioenergy production, wastewater treatment and environmentally aware energy extraction.

The previous address was delivered by Professor Yoon Lee, Ph.D, Head of International Economics and Trade Department at Sun Moon University in Public Lecture hosted by International Program for Islamic economics and Finance (IPIEF) on January 11^th, 2018. Having taken place in Meeting Room, Postgraduate Building, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY), this agenda discussed in detail “Sustainable Development Goals, Climate Change and Water Dynamics” that is now becoming main problem to tackle around the world. This agenda was also attended among others by  Asocc. Prof. Rizal Yaya, Ph.D (Dean of Faculty of Economics and Business), Dr. Imamudin Yuliadi (Head of Economics Deparment), Dimas Bagus Wiranatakusuma, M.Ec. (Director of IPIEF), Dra. Arum Indrasari, M.Buss., Ak., CA (Director of International Program of Accounting (IPAcc) and Retno Widowati, M.Si., Ph.D (Head of Management Department).

He also emphasized the critical issue concerning water quantity versus water quality in the form of water stress and water scarcity. He added, saying: “Water value has various demands which should be main consideration when social planner decided to increase water supply. In my recent research aiming to estimate the value of water, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used. The results indicate that, based on PCA result, there are at least three different values of water, namely: Environmental value, social value and economic value.”

“Moreover, my research has yielded several findings: first, people with higher age and household income tend to prefer social and local cultural demand on water value to its environmental value; second, Education level has a significant positive influence on environmental value of water, but negative on economic value; third, City residences have the highest marginal effect on all water values,” added Prof. Yoon Lee when explaining the results of PCA model.

Since the nature of water has a dynamic characteristic in particular when there is a change in its stock, it is also highly crucial to design a comprehensive model which incorporates both statistical and social aspects in a single model as conducted by Prof. Yoon Lee when studying the water shortage in Africa. “Although it is important to use a statistical model by collecting an extensive data, the Social Planner’s Model should also be constructed to reach a more comprehensive conclusion about how the effects of climate change on agriculture, water quality, and soil,” said Prof. Yoon.

Finally, he concluded that based on statistical approach, researches can address the priority areas that need to be supported and by utilizing the appropriate technology to develop a social model, we knew eventually that water supply can be used for sustainable manner. [Aw]