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Slum dwellers choose river over toilet when nature calls
Up shit creek: A man rows a bamboo raft which serves as toilet, bath pad, and laundry station, along Ciliwung river in Kampung Pulo in East Jakarta
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Up shit creek: A man rows a bamboo raft which serves as toilet, bath pad, and laundry station, along Ciliwung river in Kampung Pulo in East Jakarta. JP/Bagus BT Saragih
Jakartans are no strangers to sanitation and hygiene programs launched repeatedly by various government bodies and nonprofit organizations for decades.
But along the tired Ciliwung River, many people still choose to use the river over lavatories when nature calls.
To outsiders, the mobile river toilet in Kampung Pulo in East Jakarta might look like a normal bamboo raft, with a bench for two adults to cross the river in style.
In fact, two users can sit side by side at the back of the raft, chatting and enjoying the river view while excreting.
Former governor Sutiyoso in 2005 said jokingly the Ciliwung River was the longest public toilet in the world.
Kampung Pulo has two 8-meter mobile toilets, locally known as getek. Each one consists of a 2-square-meter roofless compartment built at one end of the raft, subdivided into two cubicles with a small hole in the flooring.
The getek are always busy, particularly during peak hours in the morning, whereas the eight public toilets nearby are deserted. The remaining area of the raft is used for various other activities.
In the morning, while some people are defecating, others are bathing on the other side of the raft. The people bathing on one side of the raft who are chatting along with their fellow bathers, do not seem bothered at all by the people defecating on the other side.
“Sometimes, when we are bathing, human waste comes floating toward us. We just stop bathing for a moment while it floats past us, and then continue bathing,” said teenager Zaky.
Around noon, the number of bathers begins to wane and housewives, oblivious to those defecating in the cubicles, board the raft to wash vegetables.
At 2 p.m. women arrive with their basins filled with clothes to do their laundry, using detergent despite the muddy water.
An hour later, children come to play and catch small fish, forcing the ladies to promptly stop their washing.
“I have a lavatory in my house, but I would rather defecate at a getek, because sometimes the waste gets stuck due to the poor drainage system in this neighborhood,” Zainuri, a resident, told The Jakarta Post.
Another resident, Husin, said that getek were much more convenient than regular toilets.
“When I use a getek, I don’t have to flush and clean myself,” he said.
Zainuri and some of his neighbors cited another reason.
“We have to pay Rp 10,000 [80 US cents] a month for electricity and a cleaner to use the MCK [public lavatory]. But for us, that is a significant amount of money. That’s why I use a getek, because it’s free.”
The head of the neighborhood unit (RT), Hendryaneffi or Efi, disagrees with Zainuri.
“Getek is not actually free. A brand new getek costs around Rp 2.5 million and users have to chip in Rp 50,000 to buy one,” said Efi.
“They pay once for unlimited use, but they actually don’t realize the cost of the impact on the environment is far higher,” she said.
Getting people to change their behavior and stop using getek is tough, Efi said.
“It takes time. They have used getek for generations,” says Efi. She has tried to get people to use public toilets and the laundry area she built with the Ciliwung Merdeka community.
Herman, a resident of Bukit Duri, South Jakarta, who lives on the other side of the river, recounted his one-month struggle to convert from using a getek to a public toilet.
“That was not easy. I was used to hearing the sound of flowing water when excreting in a getek.
I don’t have it anymore now,” he said, his face forlorn as if missing a loved one.
In Herman’s neighborhood, getek disappeared years ago. The residents, whether they liked it or not, had to get used to using public toilets.
Why does Kampung Pulo still have a getek?
“I will phase out our getek too. I have to do it over a period of time, since many still rely on it,” deputy head of Kampung Pulo subdistrict, Nazimuddin, said.
According to Nazimuddin, the subdistrict has eight MCKs to serve a population of 24,000, or 3,000 per MCK.
However the underlying problem is not merely a logistical one, said the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).
“The Kampung Pulo case is the perfect example illustrating that raising awareness is far more important than just building facilities. It is something that seems to be forgotten by the government,” said Selamet Daroyni, head of the Jakarta branch of Walhi. (bbs)
