This year’s World Toilet Day campaign highlights one of the most basic human needs: “When nature calls, we need a toilet.” However, the reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated that 60% of the global population—around 4.5 billion people—still live without a safe toilet. The reports also stated that, globally, 80% of the wastewater generated by society flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused. This could cause a devastating impact upon human health because human waste could spread diseases and damage environment.
In Indonesia, the Indonesia Statistics in 2016 reported that 3 of 10 households nationwide do not have access to improved sanitation—latrines with fecal containment. Besides, some private desludging operators still dispose septage to rivers. This situation is worsened with the absence of Septage Treatment Plant (STP) in some regions.
Therefore, it is important to build toilets and sanitation systems that can protect public health and is also safe for the environment, among others is Fecal Sludge Management (FSM). Bekasi city government in West Java is one of the local governments in Indonesia that has made great efforts in advancing the FSM in the city, among others is the STP revitalization.
Since 2015, UPTD PALD (Regional Technical Implementing Unit of Domestic Wastewater Management)—an organization under DISPERKIMTAN (Office of Housing, Settlements, and Land) in Bekasi city, has mandated to manage the domestic wastewater management, including managing the STP.
With supports from USAID IUWASH—the former program of USAID IUWASH PLUS—Bekasi city government, UPTD PALD, and DISPERKIMTAN conducted a study visit on FSM in the Philippines in April 2016. This visit inspired the city government to develop a modern and environment-friendly domestic wastewater management system.
To realize its inspiration, Bekasi city government allocated its 2016 local government budget to finance the STP technology shifting. Early 2017, the UPTD PALD, DISPERKIMTAN, and other OPD (Local Government Working Units) had discussions with USAID IUWASH PLUS on the STP technology options by considering several factors, including the STP area size.
“We chose mechanical electrical technology because it is the most suitable for an STP built on a small area,” said the Head of UPTD PALD, Andrea Sucipto, or often known as Andre.
USAID IUWASH PLUS also facilitated UPTD PALD and DISPERKIMTAN to learn further about fecal sludge management in the Fourth FSM Conference in India on February 19–23, 2017.
“I learned that other countries have processed septage into other products, such as fertilizer,” said Andre.
However, all the hard works to revitalize the STP are useless without any septage disposed to the STP. Therefore, USAID IUWASH PLUS assisted UPTD PALD, DISPERKIMTAN, and other OPDs to draft a regulation on domestic wastewater management through discussions carried out since 2017.
In February 2018, Bekasi city government enacted the Regional Regulation No 5 year 2018 on the Domestic Wastewater Management. This regulation obliges the community members to build septic tanks and desludge the tanks regularly. It also compels private desludging operators to dispose the septage in the STP.
The UPTD PALD’s marketing team also actively promotes septage treatment to the community members, from door to door. Supporting this effort, USAID IUWASH PLUS collaborates with the Health Office to promote the program through community meetings.
Andre said that currently, the STP Bekasi has 7,000 customers and is able to process, on average, 110 m3 of septage every day. With this production size, the STP Bekasi almost reaches its optimal capacity.
In the STP, the septage from a desludging truck will be tested for its acidic levels before being processed. If it meets the treatment criteria, the septage will be discharged to containment. Further, the septage will be filtered from stones and other waste that might be desludged from the septic tanks.
The filtered septage is added with chemical substance, polymer, to make solid lumps. Then, the lumps are separated between liquid and solid. Further, the liquid goes to processing ponds for further treatment until it is safe to be discharged to water body.
Meanwhile, the solid is dried using a drying machine to become sludge cake that can be used for fertilizer. STP Bekasi produces, on average, 11m3 of sludge cake every day.
Several institutions have used the sludge cake resulted from the septage processing in STP Bekasi as fertilizer for non-food crops. For instance, the Office of Cleanliness and Landscaping of Bekasi city uses the sludge cake to fertilize city gardens. Besides, the STP and a flower plantation in Bogor district, West Java also use the sludge cake as a fertilizer.
Andre said that his organization will keep promoting septage treatment in STP Bekasi.
It is estimated that the number of STP Bekasi customers will keep increasing in the future. Moreover, UPTD PALD currently charges Rp70,000/m3 for the desludging services. It is cheaper than the private desludging service cost. Therefore, Bekasi city government plans to build two STPs with the capacity of 150 m3/day, each. The construction will help the UPTD PALD to serve more people.
-Siti Ngaisah/Andri Pujikurniawati-