Challenge on conducting water footprint assessment in Indonesian batik's Small & Medium Enterprise
What is it about?
It is about batik, one of some cultural heritages of Indonesia, which brings economics benefit on the one side but bring the environmental issue to the surface on the other side, particularly on the water use for its production. Water footprint approach was used to assess the water use of batik production. However, there are some technical issue which should be tackle prior or during the research, and this is important to note.
Why is it important?
Most studies on water footprint are usually conducted at the situation (WF of a nation or corporation) where data on water use is available. This is different from batik SMEs in Indonesia, where data on water use mostly unavailable because the batik entrepreneurs are not accustomed to calculate their water use for production. Therefore, water footprint accounting in batik SMEs could be conducting by collecting primary data using direct observation, which prone to face technical issues. This paper discusses the challenges faced in exploring batik WF based on field experience. An understanding of batik itself and batik SME characteristics are required because they are closely related to the WF of the process. Finally, this paper explains the conceptual and technical challenges that will be faced during the study of batik WF.