Water as Leverage (WaL) is a collaborative program between the Netherlands Government and the government in three (3) cities in Asia, namely Semarang (Indonesia), Khulna (Bangladesh), and Chennai (India). Starting from the end of 2018, WaL aims to formulate solutions for water-related problems in urban areas. WaL is an effort to realize urban resilience against water-related issues that are in line with goal six (6) and the goal 13th of sustainable development.
Since 2018, WaL Semarang began with the process of formulating problems related to water issues. In 2019, WaL Semarang produced five (5) big concepts that prioritize an integrated approach in water management and the development of urban resilience. The five concepts are (1) Resilient Kampung (Kampung Tangguh), (2) Rechanneling the City (Optimalisasi Konektivitas Aliran Air), (3) Spongy Mountain (Penyerapan Air di Wilayah Perbukitan secara Terasering), (4) dari Water Neutral Industry (Industri Ramah Air), dan (5) Integrated Coastal Management (Pengelolaan Pesisir Terpadu).
Each concept contains project potentials, policy recommendations, and instruments that can be operationalized by a holistic approach in building urban resilience to climate change and addressing various problems and challenges related to water supply and management. The WaL Program has been implementing through the collaboration from many organizations and institutions, both local, national and international. The consortium team that contributed to the formulation of the five concepts included: MLA +, Fabrications, Deltares, Witteveen + Bos, IDN Liveable Cities, One Architecture, Wetlands International, Sherwood, The Nature Conservancy, Alterier ten, University of Pennsylvania, Yayasan Kota Kita, University Diponegoro, Unisula, and the City Initiative for Climate Change (IKUPI).
Until 2020, the Semarang City WaL program will continue. This phase encourages the internalization process of development concepts that have been compiling in the previous year into planning policies towards implementation. The design guidance document for optimizing the function of the water network in the rechanneling the city concept and the Tangguh Village guidelines are technical documents produced during Phase 3. These documents have expected to be able to contribute and serve as guidelines for increasing resilience at the smallest level, namely the village.
Documents can be downloaded in the section of “Knowledge Development > Reports/Activity Documents > Rechanneling the City Guideline Document” dan “Resilient Kampung Guideline Document”.