Potential Economic Value of Water Resource Sustainability for Sustainable Environment: A Case Study in South Sumatra, Indonesia

Abstract

\n Effective water resource management offers a very significant value across social, economic, commercial and environmental application. For this fundamental reason, adequate sustainability becomes equally crucial. Therefore, activities geared towards the depletion in quantity, quality, and loss of potable water resources, particularly for communities, demand urgent reconsiderations. Erosion in coal mining land causes depletion in water quantity and quality, as well as inadequate drinking water resources for surrounding communities, making water resources unsustainable. Meanwhile, reclamation reduces erosion, but is unable to restore water depletion optimally, thus, these resources remain unsustainable. these resources remain unsustainable. However, recycling depleted water utilization for drinking provides economic value for the environment, as well as the community’s drinking water resources’ availability and sustainability. The objectives of this study were to develop water resource sustainability concept for a sustainable environment by analyzing the potential economic value and secondly, calculate the water resource value due to erosion, reclamation, domestic and economic importance, by recycling efforts. The method used in this study was the Extended NPV. Furthermore, the total potential economic value of water resources loss resulting in water resource unsustainability was IDR 1,137,621,671,375 or IDR 1.14 trillion, while the potential economic value of depleted water utilization for drinking was IDR 2,298,339,797,000 or IDR 2.3 trillion. Therefore, this utilization provides potential economic value worth IDR 1.16 trillion, for the resources’ sustainability in the TAL area of PTBA. The study’s results found and recommended depleted water utilization for drinking as a suitable method to replace water resources lost due to erosion, community drinking water resource loss, and to discover a sustainable environment’s water resources sustainability concept. In addition, the study formulates environmental economics as a new mining science related to natural resource economics as well as mining, for sustainable water resources and mining environment.