The Public Works Ministry urged regional authorities Monday to accelerate the building of proper sanitation systems to prevent yearly losses of up to 2.3 percent of the country’s GDP as a result of illness.

“In 2007, the World Bank recorded that Indonesia lost Rp 56 trillion [around US$5.4 billion] each year due to poor sanitation systems, which leads to numerous diseases and counter-productive consequences,” Public Works Minister, Djoko Kirmanto said in his keynote speech at a gathering of regional authorities in Jakarta.

During the event, 17 regional authorities from various provinces, cities and regencies signed an agreement to speed up the improvement of their regions’ sanitation systems.

Currently, only 11 cities in nine of Indonesia’s 33 provinces have off-site or centralized sanitation systems that channel wastewater from toilets to a waste processing center. “Off-site sanitation accounts for only 2.35 percent of the country’s wastewater processing systems, while 71 percent of the country’s household use on- site sanitation systems

that usually involve septic tanks,” Djoko said.

He added that some on-site systems were still below standard and posed environmental and health risks. According to Djoko, the ministry will try to encourage 226 cities in Indonesia to enhance their sanitation systems.

“There is a possibility the government will provide incentives to regions that show admirable efforts in improving their sanitation systems,” he said.

According to Budi Yuwono, director of the ministry’s Cipta Karya division that manages housing and residential infrastructure, the government will only allocate sanitation improvement funds to regions seen as having adequate sanitation road maps.

“Only regions that have clear sanitation improvement strategies in their mid-term plans will be considered for sanitation fund disbursements,” he said on the same occasion, adding the government must increase investment in sanitation from Rp 200 per capita each year to Rp 47,000 per capita each year.

Previously, the Cipta Karya division was the only one actively involved in sanitation, Djoko explained. “From now on, this is unacceptable.”

According to the ministry’s data, the country needs at least Rp 6 trillion to enhance its sanitation systems. Currently, the government allocates around Rp 600 billion each year for this purpose.

Djoko said that due to insufficient financing, several international organizations, such as USAID were contributing considerable amounts of funds, as well as program assistance, to improve Indonesia’s sanitation.

Last month, head of the wastewater division at The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), Nugroho Tri Utomo, revealed that the government’s sanitation programs were often misdirected and targeted privileged citizens instead of the poor, who were the frequent victims of disease outbreaks due to poor hygiene. “They target people with money who can support their programs, but these people often refuse to pay the monthly fees for off-site sanitation systems, because they feel their private waste management systems are already adequate,” he said. According to Nugroho, people from the lower economic strata are more willing to pay for off-site sanitation systems. (dis)

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