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City in search of grand strategy on sanitation
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A man pumps water from the ground at a public toilet in Jakarta on March 21, on the eve of World Water Day. (AFP/ Bay Ismoyo)
T
he concentration of E. coli bacteria from human waste in some places of Jakarta far exceeds the safe level, according to city officials.
“We have discovered that the concentration of E. coli bacteria in a number of watersheds is high, even reaching 100,000 per 100 ml. It exceeds the safe level of E. coli in water, which is 2,000 per 100 ml,” city deputy for spatial planning and environment Oswar Muadzin Mungkasa, said on Wednesday during a workshop on sanitation and drinking water in Jakarta.
He added that at least 870,000 Jakarta citizens, most of whom lived in slums along the city’s 13 rivers, did not possess proper sanitation systems at their homes and defecated into the rivers.
Oswar said that in a bid to clean river water across Jakarta from the contamination of E. coli from human waste, the city administration targeted to come up with a grand strategy to address the issue next month.
The administration, Oswar added, was cooperating with two agencies that have experience in the field of clean water and sanitation, namely the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), to create the grand strategy.
