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Solo gets new community sanitation facility
Healthy community: A resident collects water at a public toilet in Semanggi subdistrict, Surakarta, Central Java
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Healthy community: A resident collects water at a public toilet in Semanggi subdistrict, Surakarta, Central Java. The subdistrict has been chosen to pilot a project supported by USAID. (JP/ Kusumasari Ayuningtyas) (JP/ Kusumasari Ayuningtyas)
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span class="inline inline-none">Healthy community: A resident collects water at a public toilet in Semanggi subdistrict, Surakarta, Central Java. The subdistrict has been chosen to pilot a project supported by USAID. (JP/ Kusumasari Ayuningtyas)
Starting this week the villagers of Semanggi subdistrict, Pasar Kliwon district, Surakarta, Central Java, no longer need to bathe, wash clothes and defecate in the river that passes through the area.
Thanks to the USAID-funded Indonesian Urban Water Sanitation and Hygiene (IUWASH) program, the subdistrict now has a sanitation facility where locals can perform daily activities requiring water.
The Rp 884-million (US$77,458) facility also comes with a communal wastewater processing system (IPAL) and a communal septic tank.
'I hope the program is useful for the people of Solo [Surakarta],' said US Ambassador to Indonesia Robert O. Blake during the opening of the facility earlier this week.
Blake said the program was part of a long-term partnership between Indonesia and the United States. The new facility, he said, was proof of his country's commitment to improving the health of Indonesians.
Dubbed as a 'sanitation village', the Semanggi project is a first step toward making Surakarta a 'sanitation city'. In the long-term, the program aims to improve sanitation in 54 Indonesian cities.
The program specifically targets low-income families.
Semanggi is one of Surakarta's 51 subdistricts. It is located near the Bengawan Solo River. Of the subdistrict's 1,800 residents, only some 10 percent had access to their own sanitation facilities before the program.
The new community facility provided by the program can accommodate 350 families. No fewer than 100 families in the subdistrict also now have direct access to clean water from municipal tap-water company PDAM via pipes installed as part of the program.
Before the program, locals drew water directly from the PDAM reservoir located some 200 meters from Semanggi. The water cost them Rp 5,000 per 5-liter jerry can.
'That was just for our consumption. For other purposes we used wells. For toilet, we used the river,' local resident Sudrajat said.
Several small stalls had been set up along the river bank for people to defecate in. Now that the sanitation facility is operating, the stalls have been closed.
Meanwhile, head of the Municipal Public Works Agency, Ahyani, said that the city of some 550,000 still lacked communal sanitation facilities.
He said this year his agency planned to build 20 facilities in five districts. Next year, however, only 10 more would be built because a previous donor would no longer be operating in the municipality.
The Semanggi communal sanitation facility is under the management of local residents. Users are obliged to pay Rp 200 for urinating, Rp 500 for defecating and Rp 1,000 for washing clothes. The money collected is used to maintain the facility's cleanliness.
'Such communal sanitation facilities are really needed, especially in densely populated areas,' Ahyani said.
