Few areas seem as obvious for Netherlands–Indonesia cooperation as water.
The Netherlands has spent centuries managing a country where large areas lie at or below sea level. Its international reputation in water engineering, delta management and flood resilience is well established.
Indonesia, meanwhile, faces substantial water-related challenges of its own — from flooding and coastal vulnerability to land subsidence, drainage pressures, urbanisation and climate change.
It would therefore be tempting to make a simple conclusion:
Indonesia has a water problem. The Netherlands has water expertise. Match made.
The reality is more interesting.
Water resilience is not simply an engineering problem
Take Greater Jakarta.
Flooding is not generated by one factor. Rainfall interacts with drainage capacity, river systems, urban development, groundwater extraction, subsidence, land use and coastal conditions.
A new piece of infrastructure can address one part of that system while leaving several other causes untouched.
And different Indonesian locations require different approaches.
The challenge facing coastal communities in Demak is not identical to urban flooding in Jakarta. The needs of rapidly growing secondary cities will be different again.
This makes Indonesian knowledge indispensable.
Dutch organizations may understand water.
Indonesian governments, communities, universities, engineers and businesses understand the places in which solutions actually have to work.
There is already a long history of cooperation
The relationship is not theoretical.
Water has been an established area of Netherlands–Indonesia cooperation, covering areas such as climate adaptation, water technology, urban water solutions and water-efficient agriculture.
One particularly interesting model has been Building with Nature in Demak, where coastal resilience approaches have combined ecosystem restoration — particularly mangroves — with engineering principles and local economic and community considerations.
More recently, Indonesia has also participated in ASEAN–Netherlands exchanges around nature-based solutions such as wetland restoration, mangrove-based coastal protection and sustainable urban green spaces.
This points toward a broader evolution in climate adaptation.
Instead of always asking: What infrastructure should we build? — the question increasingly becomes: How can engineering, ecosystems, communities and economics work together?
This is also an investment opportunity
The policy and financing environment adds another dimension.
In February 2025, Invest International, acting on behalf of the Dutch government, signed a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia covering up to €300 million of cooperation for public infrastructure. Water management sits alongside waste, healthcare, renewable energy and agriculture among the identified sectors.
That does not mean every Dutch water company suddenly has access to funding.
It does show that water resilience is embedded in a broader bilateral economic relationship, rather than existing only as development cooperation.
Where, then, is the next opportunity?
For a new Dutch organization entering Indonesia, simply possessing water expertise will probably not be enough.
Dutch water capabilities are already well known.
Differentiation may instead come from addressing less-developed parts of the ecosystem:
- Community resilience
- Nature-based solutions
- Climate financing
- Data translated into usable municipal decisions
- Smaller-city resilience
- Integrating water management with urban planning
- Communicating complex climate risks in ways that communities and decision-makers can act upon
And the role of the Dutch partner may not always be to lead. In some projects it may provide technology. In others, research. Financing. Specialist engineering. International networks. Or simply one component of a much larger Indonesian-led programme.
That is a healthier starting point for international cooperation.
From knowledge transfer to knowledge partnership
The phrase "knowledge transfer" has long been used in international development.
But it can imply that knowledge travels in only one direction.
In reality, Indonesia is itself a vast laboratory of experience in tropical cities, coastal communities, mangrove systems, informal settlements, rapidly developing infrastructure and climate adaptation.
There is knowledge to exchange in both directions.
The strongest proposition may therefore be:
Dutch water expertise + Indonesian environmental and societal knowledge + locally led implementation.
The Netherlands knows water.
Indonesia knows Indonesia.
The opportunity is what can be built when both are respected equally.