Packaged drinking water in Indonesia: The determinants of household in the selection and management process

Abstract

The availability of safe drinking water remains a challenge in Indonesia. Packaged water in bottles or refillable containers has been increas-ingly popular as an alternative to good-quality drinking water. This study aimed to identify the reasons for the selection, management, and factors that influenced bottled and refilled water use in Indonesia. A cross-sectional Household Drinking Water Quality (HDWQ) study was conducted in 34 Indonesian provinces in 2020 involving 7,236 households as analyzed samples. The data analysis also included the 2020 National Socioeconomic Survey data to obtain households’ socioeconomic status. As many as 68 and 63% of households consumed good-quality bottled and refilled water, respectively. Health was the reason for 29% of households choosing good-quality bottled water, while 49% of households selected good-quality refilled water out of habit. Several factors related to the consumption of fine-quality packaged water were high social status, water physical quality, ease of access, health reason, monthly expenses to buy drinking water, and storing water in manufactured containers. Packaged water, whether bottled or refilled, does not guarantee good physical and chemical quality. Therefore, to ensure good quality, the water storage should be kept from contamination.