Peraturan Menteri Pekerjaan Umum dan Perumahan Rakyat 28/2015 is a regulation of the Indonesian Minister of Public Works and Public Housing, Peraturan Menteri Pekerjaan Umum dan Perumahan Rakyat Nomor 28/PRT/M/2015 tentang Penetapan Garis Sempadan Sungai dan Garis Sempadan Danau, which sets the minimum setback lines (garis sempadan) protecting rivers, lakes and springs, the procedure by which governments fix them, and the limits on using the land inside them. It was signed on 20 May 2015, took effect on its promulgation on 25 May 2015, and revoked a 1993 ministerial regulation on river setbacks.^[1][2] It forms part of the water resources law of Indonesia.

The regulation grades river setbacks by whether a river runs inside or outside an urban area and whether it is embanked, and for unembanked urban rivers also by depth, so that the minimum distance runs from 3 metres from the toe of an embankment in a town to 100 metres from the bank of a large rural river. Lakes carry a setback of at least 50 metres and springs of at least 200 metres.^[3]

The lines are fixed by the minister, the governor or the regent or mayor according to the class of river territory, on the basis of a study by a team that includes community members, and had to be fixed within three years. Buildings found inside a setback are frozen in their existing state and gradually cleared, with exceptions for utilities and water infrastructure, and any use of the setback requires a permit.^[4][5][6]

¶ Background

The preamble states that the minister acted under the 1974 irrigation statute, Undang-Undang Nomor 11 Tahun 1974 tentang Pengairan, the 2014 regional government law, which divides water resources management among the central, provincial and district governments, and Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 35 Tahun 1991 tentang Sungai, which gives the minister authority to fix river and lake setback lines.^[7] The 1974 statute was then in force again because the Constitutional Court had annulled the 2004 water resources law in February 2015; it was itself revoked in 2019 by UU 17/2019, which kept earlier implementing regulations in force so far as they did not conflict with it and had not been replaced.^[8]

Pasal 3 gives the purpose of fixing setbacks as allowing the protection, use and control of the resources of rivers and lakes to be carried out according to their purpose, so that river and lake functions are not disturbed by surrounding activity, their use yields optimal results while preserving those functions, and the destructive power of their water is limited. Pasal 2 limits the regulation to three matters: fixing setback lines for rivers, lakes and springs, using setback areas, and supervising that use.^[9]

¶ Setback distances

Pasal 1 defines a river setback line as an imaginary line on the left and right of a river channel fixed as the limit of the river's protection, and a lake setback (sempadan danau) as the belt of land around a lake that protects it.^[9:1] Under Pasal 4 the river setback is the space between the setback line and the edge of the channel for an unembanked river, or between the line and the outer toe of the embankment for an embanked one; an embankment (tanggul) is an earthen flood barrier.^[3:1]

The regulation sets six categories. For unembanked rivers inside urban areas, Pasal 5 sets at least 10 metres from each bank where the river is no deeper than 3 metres, 15 metres where it is deeper than 3 and up to 20 metres, and 30 metres where it is deeper than 20 metres. For unembanked rivers outside urban areas, Pasal 6 turns not on depth but on catchment size: at least 100 metres for a large river with a catchment of more than 500 square kilometres and 50 metres for a small river. Embanked rivers carry at least 3 metres from the outer toe of the embankment in urban areas under Pasal 7 and 5 metres outside them under Pasal 8. Rivers affected by the tide follow the same rules, measured from the mean high-tide water line (Pasal 10), and springs carry a setback of at least 200 metres around their centre (Pasal 11).^[3:2]

Where an embankment stands inside the setback, the space between the channel and the inner toe of the embankment is the floodplain (bantaran sungai), which serves as a flood conveyance zone (Pasal 9). Lake setbacks, under Pasal 12, run at least 50 metres around the lake from the highest water level ever recorded, and that level also marks the boundary of the lake body.^[3:3]

¶ Fixing the lines

Pasal 13 assigns the fixing of river setback lines to the minister for rivers in cross-provincial, cross-border and nationally strategic river territories, to the governor for river territories crossing districts, and to the regent or mayor for river territories within one district. Pasal 14 requires the decision to rest on a study that takes account of the river's geomorphology, local social and cultural conditions and the access needed for operation and maintenance, and that records at least the river reach concerned and the number and type of buildings within the setback. The study is made by a team of technical agencies and community representatives formed by the competent authority.^[4:1]

If the study finds buildings inside the setback, Pasal 15 declares them to be in status quo and requires them to be brought into order in stages to restore the setback's function. Water resources infrastructure, bridges and jetties, gas and drinking-water pipelines, power and telecommunication lines and electricity installations are excepted.^[4:2] Lake setbacks follow a parallel procedure under Pasal 17 to Pasal 20, with coordination with the forestry agency where a lake lies within a forest area and with the whole of any island in a lake treated as part of its catchment; the exceptions for lakes add tourism, sports and religious facilities and sanitation infrastructure.^[10] Lampiran I and Lampiran II set out the procedure for the river and lake studies.^[4:3]

¶ Use and supervision

Pasal 22 allows a river setback to be used only in a limited way: for water resources infrastructure, bridges and jetties, pipelines, cable lines, electricity installations, and other activities that do not disturb the river's function, such as growing vegetables. Where an embankment protects against floods, the embankment is protected by prohibitions on planting anything other than grass, erecting buildings and reducing its dimensions. Pasal 23 restricts lake setbacks to research, tourism, sport and cultural or religious activity and to listed buildings, and prohibits altering the lake shore, discharging waste, grazing livestock and altering the flow of water into or out of the lake.^[5:1]

Any use of a setback requires a permit from the minister, governor or regent or mayor, issued after considering a technical recommendation from the water resources manager of the river territory (Pasal 24). Supervision under Pasal 25 is carried out by the same authorities with community participation, which may take the form of reports, complaints and lawsuits.^[5:2][11]

¶ Transition and implementation

Existing permits to use river or lake setbacks remained valid until they expired, applications in progress were to be decided under the new rules, and buildings erected under properly obtained permits were placed in status quo and to be brought into order in stages (Pasal 26). Pasal 27 required the minister, governors and regents or mayors to fix the setback lines within their authority within three years of entry into force, and Pasal 29 revoked Peraturan Menteri Pekerjaan Umum Nomor 63/PRT/M/1993 on river setback lines, river benefit zones, river control zones and former river beds.^[6:1][2:1]

In the ministry's 2024 organisation, technical verification of setback studies for rivers, lakes, reservoirs and springs is assigned to subdirectorates of the Directorate of Operations and Maintenance, set out in Permen PUPR 8/2024.^[12] CRPG's regulatory tracker published an English-language summary of the setback rules in November 2025.^[13]

¶ See also

• Permen LH 1/2010
• Groundwater regulation in Indonesia
• PP 30/2024

¶ External links

• Permen PUPR No. 28/PRT/M/2015 (JDIH BPK)
• CRPG: What River and Lake Setback Requirements Apply Under PERMENPUPR 28/2015? (crpg.id, 26 November 2025) (free sign-in required on crpg.id)

¶ References