Pucuk Sari residents tackle waste problem

Dicky Christanto ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Denpasar   |  Thu, 04/24/2008 12:26 PM  |  Surfing Bali

NOTHING GOES TO WASTE: A resident of Pucuk Sari village, in Ubung, Denpasar. cooks using a fire fueled by processed domestic waste and waste from the local poultry, tofu and tempeh industries. (JP/Dicky Christianto)

Residents of Pucuk Sari village in Ubung sub district, Denpasar, can now breathe a sigh of relief after devising a way to recycle domestic and industry waste.

Together with Bali Focus, a local non-governmental organization that deals with waste and sanitation problems, the residents of Pucuk Sari set up a system that processes domestic waste from households, poultry slaughter houses and the tofu and tempeh producers in the area.

The system transforms waste into a less pollutant liquid or gas that can be used as a fuel for cooking.

"The free fire fuel, however, is still unable to reach every household as the system requires more funding before it can be expanded. However, up to this point, we are really happy with the results, as we never thought that we would be able to solve the waste problem," Abdul Mukti, a resident of Pucuk Sari, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

There are six households, including Mukti's house, in the village that currently use the free fire fuel to fulfill their daily cooking needs.

Mukti, who is also the former leader of the Pucuk Sari local business cooperative called Mekar Sari Jaya, said local residents had been urged by sub district officials to leave the village in 2003. This was due to the unbearable odor from domestic waste and other waste from poultry slaughter houses and tofu and tempeh producers in the village.

In 2003, Pucuk Sari was considered one of the dirtiest villages on the whole island; it produced an unbearable odor on a daily basis.

The situation improved after Bali Focus held a series of discussions with the residents about ideas to initiate a communal clean water system and sewage management system.

Bali Focus coordinator Yuyun Ismawati said the NGO had cooperated with the local and central governments to develop a sanitation program since 2003. She said the program involved villagers in the design, development and maintenance processes of their own sanitation system.

"This was done so the people could maintain the program on their own," she told The Jakarta Post last week.

Yuyun said the project involved the building of a sanitation facility, in the form of a public toilet block, and the installation of a waste water and sewage management system.

She said the program was funded by the local administration, which contributed Rp 200 million to the project, the public works ministry (Rp 100 million) and the residents themselves (up to 30 million).

She said the funding from the residents was allocated to facility maintenance while the government funding was used to build sanitation facilities and the sewage management system.

The implementation of the sanitation program -- from design of the system to day-to-day operations in the first year and monitoring the disbursement of funds from each institution -- was carried out by four other NGOs: Bali Focus, Borda, Best and LPTP.

Currently, there are more than 100 community-based organizations dealing with sanitation issues throughout the country, with eight located in Bali. Most of these organizations are managing sanitation and sewage management systems in poor villages.

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