D

esperation over a lack of support from the local administration spurred the residents of Cilacap, Central Java, to collect coins to fix their damaged roads.

 Almost 50 percent of the regency's roads are scarred by potholes and peeling layers of asphalt. Fed up with the situation, members of the community mobilized to obtain the much needed funds.

Information about the crowdsourcing project was disseminated through a Facebook group called Coins for Damaged Roads in Cilacap.

'Hopefully the group will stimulate stakeholders to do something about the roads in Cilacap,' Agung Dwi Purnomo, one of the group's administrators, said.

Complaints and expressions of rage over the situation are evident on the group's Facebook wall.

One user, with the handle Awan Biru, questioned why ' when the regency produces asphalt ' they have such horrendous roads. Hamid, another user, asked about the time frame for repair work.

Some users ridiculed and scoffed at the regency's administration in the Banyumasan local dialect.

Aside from stirring up the emotions of residents, the foul state of the roads have also been blamed for the frequency of traffic accidents.

The head of road development and improvement at the Cilacap office of the Public Works Ministry' Bina Marga directorate general, Wahyu Pramono, confirmed the road condition. He said of the total 1.1 million kilometers of roads in Cilacap, half were damaged and are not suitable for vehicles.

'Of the roads in question, some 20 percent are so damaged they are only fit for motorcycles,' Wahyu said.

He also said the administration did not have the budget to solve the problem. 'We probably need Rp 1.5 trillion [US$153 million] to fix the damaged roads ' this is almost equal to the Cilacap regency budget. Therefore, we cannot do that,' he said, adding that Cilacap could only assign Rp 122 billion of its Rp 1.8 trillion budget to fix 4 percent of the damaged roads.

Some 80 percent of the regency budget of Rp 1.8 trillion covers civil servants' salaries.

'We have to do it slowly. This is indeed a bitter reality,' Cilacap legislative council speaker Fran Lukman said.