Handling Surakarta’s growing waste problem

(News Terupdate) - Seventy-year-old Tukimah looks cheerful, her grandchild at her side, as she walks down the road in her kampung.

She’s going to the MCK Plus, a public bathroom facility at the edge of the Jenes creek in Kampung Serengan, Makam Bergolo, Surakarta. The building has a floor and four walls, and unlike other MCKs, gives the impression of being hygienic. And for Tukmiah and her grandchild, that in itself is reason for joy when going to the MCK, painted bright blue, just like the local elementary school.

Sharing the MCK are 70 households in Kampung Serengan. In the past, going to the toilet here meant taking a dump right into the creek. But now, with the MCK Plus Sanimas Sehati (community-based sanitation) system, the community is changing its habit and keeping the Jenes creek free of human waste.

Erfan Basuki, who is involved in the management of the sanitation system, says the MCK cost Rp 360 million (US$34,500) to build and involves the local community.

“It gives them a sense of belonging and participation in managing the system to suit their own needs,” he says.

“And so the sanitation system continues to be well looked after and maintained.”

Sitting on the side of the road, the Sanimas Sehati building really stands out. Each household using the facility pays Rp 7,500 a month toward its upkeep. For this price, they are entitled to bathe, wash and do their number ones and twos here.

Others wanting to use the facility are charged Rp 1,000 for bathing and Rp 500 for using the toilet. A member of the local community is employed to manage the facility and handle the daily accounts.

The icing on the cake, though, is that the waste is no longer dumped into the creek — it’s processed by a digester. This generates biogas in the form of methane, which can then be canned and used to fire up a stove out front for public use.

The facility has four bathing stalls and four toilets, and the place is kept clean. The floors are tiled, and people using the facility are asked to take off their shoes before coming in. Because of the sense of community about the facility, they are happy to obey the rules.

“In the past this place was actually a public toilet and bathing place,” says Tukimah.

“But it wasn’t as clean and hygienic as it is now. Back then, even the bathing stall didn’t work properly because the drain was clogged. But after it was rebuilt, everything became better. Our family and neighbors here in the kampung are very happy with this sanitation system.”

Susanti, one of the community members helping manage the facility, says it makes Rp 400,000 a month. That money is augmented by donations that go into a collection box out front. No fee is charged for use of the biogas stove as yet, but users are welcome to contribute.

Surakarta now has seven community sanitation systems. One is in Kragilan subdistrict, built in 2005 to serve 96 households.

“On average, every community sanitation system costs Rp 300 million to build,” Agus Suryono, director general of the Surakarta Water Company, tells The Jakarta Post.

The municipality spans 4,404 hectares and is home to 556,000 residents. It is divided into five districts and 51 subdistricts.

With the establishment of the community sanitation systems, water and soil pollution is vastly
reduced. So far the disposal of domestic waste, which uses pipes that can channel the waste to the final process installation, new waste systems have reached 10.64 percent (offsite). The rest use septic tanks, or pipe the waste directly into the river (onsite).

The unprocessed waste poses a toxic and environmental threat, and can pollute soil and water as well as poison well water with E. coli.

To tackle this, the Surakarta administration has been educating the public on the importance of treating domestic waste. Eighty-nine percent of the city’s waste comes from household waste, while the remaining 11 percent comes from industrial and hospital waste.

The water company’s Agus says wastewater treatment using the offsite system is handled by the company, which now has 10,840 households across 28 subdistricts as subscribers.

“Not all families have subscribed. It’s difficult for most, for instance for those who live far from the pipeline that channels waste to the treatment facility,” he says.

“So we’ve had to expand the network. On the other hand, there are those who feel they don’t need the system. However, connecting to the network is cheap because we still have pipes to expand the network. Plus the city subsidizes it.”

There are two waste treatment facilities in Surakarta. One is them is in Semanggi, and can handle
60 liters of waste a second. It processes waste from 6,279 households in the south. Prior to an upgrade in 2008, it could only process 30 liters a second.

The Integrated Sanitation System empties into the wastewater treatment facility (IPAL). After it’s processed, the liquid waste is no longer waste. The cost of processing the waste using the subscription installation is also cheap, only Rp 560,000.

However, the actual cost can reach Rp 1.7 million. The lower price is grace of the municipal water company, which can subsidize its extra stock pipe to the communities. Monthly subscriptions for households range from Rp 5,000 and Rp 7,500, while for commercial subscribers they range from Rp 20,000 to Rp 30,000, and Rp 30,000 to Rp 100,000 for retailers.

“These prices are far cheaper when compared to digging your own septic tank, which starts at
Rp 2.5 million,” Agus says.

Triyanto, head of the Surakarta Sanitation Working Group, says it is expected that by 2014, the city’s sanitation system will be able to serve 24,000 out of the total 125,000 families. He adds he is also trying to change the community’s attitude toward a more hygiene-oriented one.

The municipal sanitation program has also received the support of the Indonesian Sanitation Sector Development Program (ISSDP), sub-program of the Dutch-Indonesian Water and Sanitation Program (Wasap) Trust Fund.

Once the pilot project in Surakarta has been deemed a success, authorities can begin targeting 80 million people in communities in the rest of the country to get them to quit taking dumps just about anywhere, says Nugroho Tri Utomo, secretary of the Sanitation Technical Team and also head of the National Development Planning Agency’s Sub-Directorate of Water and Waste Water.

“That’s 30 percent of Indonesian citizens who routinely contaminate the environment,” he says.

Budi Yuwono, director general of the Public Works Ministry’s general working department, says 11 cities in Indonesia currently have a centralized sanitation system. Of these, only Surakarta has been able to fully optimize its system.

Waste treatment plants have been built in Cirebon and Bandung (West Java), Yogyakarta, Balikpapan (East Kalimantan), Banjarmasin (South Kalimantan), Denpasar (Bali), Jakarta, Surakarta and other cities. Yogyakarta, however, is only running its operation at 50 percent, despite the system being in place since 14 years ago. Bandung, meanwhile, is running its 15-year-old system at 30 percent efficiency.

Budi has asked the government to authorize a bigger budget for sanitation.

“The budget allocation for sanitation and water in 2008 was Rp 1.2 trillion,” he says.

“But when this money has been channeled to regional administrations, the funds are often used to build the infrastructure to supply potable water.”

This means more needs to be done to raise the awareness of regency and municipal administrations nationwide.

Surakarta, though, has become a pioneer in highlighting the importance of sanitation for its
communities.

Posted in: News Today