CONTAINED inside a plastic bottle, the clear liquid seemed no different to most drinking water. The difference lies in its origin. Instead of being extracted from a spring, the plain water was pumped out of the sea.

"It is the first in Indonesia," said a researcher from the Marine Science Department of Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), Bonar Pasaribu, to Tempo early last week. Four years ago, he explored the seas of Indonesia, from Pelabuhan Ratu