Despite its young age, BUMDes Wiraraja—a village owned enterprise in Wonorejo village in Lumajang district—has successfully secured its position in sanitation marketing by selling toilets with septic tanks in credit to community in the village and its surrounding areas.
According to the Director of BUMDes Wiraraja, Mrs. Desse Aria Dewi, the idea to sell the toilets with septic tanks came up when the enterprise participated in the training and promotion on healthy toilets construction that USAID IUWASH PLUS conducted in April 2019. BUMDes Wiraraja was among two village owned enterprises recommended by the village empowerment office of Lumajang district to receive technical assistance from USAID IUWASH PLUS in sanitation marketing. Through the training, the BUMDes learned about safely managed sanitation, opportunities of the sanitation business, credit as a payment option for sanitation products, and construction of proper safe toilets. USAID IUWASH PLUS also prepared the promotion materials that the BUMDes could use.
With this knowledge, BUMDes Wiraraja started marketing the safe toilets in April 2019. To attract more people to purchase its products and services, BUMDes Wiraja sells toilets with septic tanks with credit scheme to its customers. Since then, BUMDes Wiraraja sells the safe toilets and their construction service at a price of Rp1.5 to Rp2.5 million. Customers can pay for the product and service in installments for 10 months without a down payment. To atrract more customers, BUMDes Wiraraja also utilized social media for promotion.
The Director of BUMDes Wiraraja said that the selling toilets with septic tanks in credit is in line with one of the enterprise’s goals, which is to provide such facilities to the community at an affordable price and an easy process. “Selling the toilets on credit is a good option as there are many families here who have yet to have the facility and are financially incapable to build them in one payment,” said the Director, who has also been a community cadre for the last seven years.
To optimize the BUMDes’ business, USAID IUWASH PLUS encouraged the enterprise to involve community cadres to sell the toilets with septic tanks. The project also further trained the BUMDes and cadres on the marketing technique, behavior change promotion, and business development in February 2020. With the better knowledge on marketing strategy and assistance from the cadres as sales persons, BUMDes Wiraraja has built 12 toilets with septic tanks until June 2020.
“The safe toilet credit from BUMDes Wiraraja is very helpful as I can pay in installments,” said Mrs. Saufa, a customerof BUMDes Wiraraja. With such an achievement, BUMDes Wiraraja is currently representing Lumajang district in the 2020 BUMDes Competition held by the East Java province government.