Alfiyah, a friendly PKK (family welfare movement) cadre from Perumahan Bumi Cimahpar Asri in Bogor city, is known as the champion of Scheduled Desludging Services (LLTT)—a regular desludging service, followed by a proper treatment in the designated facility with an agreed payment method. Alfiyah actively promotes the LLTT to the people in her neighborhood. To date, she is frequently invited by the Regional Technical Implementing Unit for Domestic Wastewater Treatment (UPTD PAL) of Bogor City to promote the LLTT benefits to people in other areas within Bogor city.
Alfiyah’s journey as the LLTT champion began when she participated in an LLTT promotion in 2013. The Sanitary Office, UPTD PAL, and USAID IUWASH –-the former project of USAID IUWASH PLUS – ran this activity. Through this event, Alfiyah learned that bottomless latrines and not-desludged latrines could permeate and contaminate the environment, ultimately harming people’s health.
Before participating in the LLTT promotion, Alfiyah and many other people in Perumahan Bumi Cimahpar Asri used the on-call desludging services provided by private firms. Unlike LLTT, the on-call desludging operators desludge upon the users request only. With this mechanism, people often forget to call the operators and some people stop using the service because they think the service fee is too expensive. Consequently, sludge and domestic wastewater permeate and contaminate the environment.
Alfiyah’s concerns on the risk of sludge and domestic wastewater contamination to the environment drove her to promote LLTT to her neighbors. She believes that everyone should make changes rather than rely on a few individuals to make changes. “When we do good things, but our neighbors do not [do the same thing], [our environment] remains at risk,” said Alfiyah firmly.
To practice this value, Alfiyah and two Posyandu (integrated healthcare service) cadres have actively promoted the benefits of LLTT in the community meetings and arisan (collective funds gatherings) since 2013. Alfiyah also used information technology, particularly WhatsApp group, to persuade other community members to use LLTT.
As a result, 106 houses in Perumahan Bumi Cimahpar Asri have signed up for LLTT and receive the desludging service every two years. The first desludging service was conducted in 2013 with financial assistance from USAID IUWASH, and the second service was delivered in 2016 using their own money. To pay for the second desludging services, each LLTT customer in Perumahan Bumi Cimahpar Asri had been saving ten thousand rupiah per month since 2014.
Alfiyah’s role in promoting LLTT in her neighborhood was not only limited to introducing the services. She also managed the people’s savings to pay for the second desludging services. She also communicated the people’s complaints to UPLT PAL in Bogor city.
The community members in Perumahan Bumi Cimahpar Asri have reaped the benefits of LLTT. Alfiyah said that the LLTT customers feel comfortable with the service and find it very helpful. They do not need to call private desludging operators, and the LLTT service fee is affordable for them because they have savings.
“I really wish more community members will become the LLTT customers to prevent fecal and domestic waste water contamination to humans,” Alfiyah hoped.
(Kartika Hermawati/ USAID IUWASH PLUS)
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