Attention must be redirected to sewage treatment: Board

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 02/23/2007 8:55 AM | Jakarta

Anissa S. Febrina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In order to avoid further losses due to environmental changes and the spread of infectious diseases, Jakarta needs to increase its investment in sewerage infrastructure, an official says.

""It would cost roughly Rp 4 billion to build a sewerage system for the whole city and with its annual revenue, Jakarta has the capacity to build it,"" Nugroho Tri Utomo, the head of liquid waste and drinking water at the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), said Tuesday.

""Money is never a problem. It is the priority-setting that needs to be adjusted,"" he added.

Currently, cities like Jakarta spend an average of 0.05 percent of their annual budget on sanitation.

Jakarta's last investment in sewage and wastewater treatment amounted to Rp 36 billion for the development of the Setiabudi plant, which serves only about 0.7 percent of the city's population.

Office buildings and few households are connected to the Setiabudi plant, which uses an aerated lagoon system.

In 2004, the World Bank ranked Jakarta the second-lowest among cities in Asia in terms of sanitation quality.

The absence of an adequate sewerage system worsened the impact of the floods in the city earlier this month.

As of this week, 2,614 flood victims had been admitted to hospital with diarrheal diseases. A high incidence of diarrhea is closely related to unsafe water supply, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.

The most recent study from the Water and Sanitation Project reveals a Rp 51,254 investment per capita per year could increase productivity by up to 80 percent and reduce health costs by up to to 20 percent.

""Investment in sanitation is practically nonexistent, while the drop in productivity caused by the city's substandard sewerage system continues,"" he said.

Experts and officials have argued there are a number of environmental and social costs associated with digging up roads to put in sewerage pipes.

An ongoing project in Denpasar, Bali -- which was funded by a the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) -- could serve as an example of providing the advantages of a sewerage system without the costs.

The first phase of the Denpasar Sewerage Development Project aims to reach 30 percent of the city's total area.

In a bid to reduce the disruption of urban activities, the project utilizes pipe-jacking technology. Pipe jacking is a system for installing underground pipes that is particularly suited to the urban environment because it causes very little disturbance to traffic and overlying infrastructure.

With the system, contractors need only dig 16-square-meters openings every 50 meters and push the pipes through the jacks.

Most underground infrastructure projects in Jakarta use the conventional open trench system.

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