Indonesia’s Bottled-Water Use Reveals a Wide Regional Divide

Bottled and refill water leads nationally

Indonesia’s household drinking-water market is marked by a wide regional divide, with urban provinces and areas served by dense retail networks relying much more heavily on branded bottled water and refill water than locations with limited distribution. The gap creates very different operating conditions for beverage producers, refill businesses, distributors and retailers across the archipelago.

Data from Statistics Indonesia, or BPS, reported by Liputan6.com shows that 40.64% of Indonesian households used branded bottled water or refill water as their main drinking-water source in March 2023. The combined category was the country’s most widely used source, ahead of boreholes or pumped wells at 17.07% and protected wells at 15.26%.

The national figure covers urban and rural households, but it masks substantial differences between regions. In several provinces, more than eight in every 10 households depend on packaged or refill water. Elsewhere, households continue to rely more heavily on protected springs, boreholes and wells.

East Kalimantan districts record high dependence

Liputan6.com identified urban provinces such as Jakarta and East Kalimantan as markets with particularly high use of bottled and refill water. At the district and city level, BPS data for March 2025 showed that Kutai Kartanegara had the highest share in East Kalimantan at 93.08%, followed by Bontang at 89.73%.

Reports also point to similarly high usage in the Riau Islands and North Kalimantan, although Liputan6.com said it could not verify precise figures for those provinces in an official BPS release when its article was written. Available provincial figures do not all come from the same survey period, meaning they should be used to illustrate the geographic pattern rather than as a strictly synchronized ranking.

The strongest markets share several characteristics: concentrated urban populations, extensive convenience-store and neighborhood-retail coverage, and distribution systems capable of moving packaged water or refill containers close to households. These conditions increase product availability and make regular delivery commercially viable.

Classification changes complicate comparisons

Historical comparisons require caution because BPS has changed how it presents the market. Some publications report branded bottled water and refill water separately, with the categories accounting for approximately 9-10% and 30-36%, respectively, in later-period data. Other publications combine them, as in the March 2023 figure of 40.64%.

The distinction matters commercially. Factory-packaged branded water and locally supplied refill water can involve different production assets, pricing models, quality controls and delivery networks. A combined household-use figure measures overall dependence on purchased drinking water, but it does not by itself show how demand is divided between industrial bottlers and refill operators.

Distribution remains the market boundary

Lower-use areas are generally associated with sparse retail networks, low population density and uneven piped-water infrastructure, particularly in eastern Indonesia. Households there more often use boreholes, pumped wells or protected springs. Liputan6.com said the divide reflects differences in distribution infrastructure and the quality of local water sources, rather than consumer preference alone.

For producers and distributors, the data points to two distinct opportunities. Highly penetrated urban markets offer large established demand but require competition for retail access and repeat household deliveries. Lower-penetration regions may offer room for expansion, but only where transport economics, refill capacity and last-mile availability support affordable supply.

BPS’s official table on the percentage distribution of households by province and principal drinking-water source provides the appropriate basis for detailed provincial comparisons. Any investment or market-share assessment must also separate survey periods and verify whether branded bottled water and refill water were reported together or independently.