“Poor sanitation will deteriorate water quality. Consuming poor quality water will affect the people’s health and decrease their quality of life. Government support is significant to address this issue,” said Endah Mardiana, the Head of Human Settlements Divison of the Lumajang District Public Works and Spatial Planning Office (Dinas PUTR).
Endah really understands that strong local government support is needed to provide community members with access to safely-managed sanitation, including domestic wastewater management. However, up to mid 2017, the Lumajang district government did not include the domestic wastewater management as its priority program. In fact, water supply in Lumajang district is still at risk of being polluted from domestic wastewater that overflows from not-desludged septic tanks or is disposed of directly to the rivers.
The PUTR and Health offices’ data on sanitation coverage in 2016 showed that 67% of the total 1.1 population in Lumajang district had access to toilets and septic tanks. Around 5,000 of them had access to about 60 public bathing, washing, and toilet facilities, and communal Wastewater Treatment Plants (IPAL Komunal) built by the PUTR office. Meanwhile, 19.7% of the population used bottomless latrines, and 1.05% practiced Open Defecation (OD).
IPAL Komunal is a facility to contain septage from latrines. The septage in this facility should be desludged regularly or whenever the septic tanks are full, and transported using a septage truck to Septage Treatment Plant (IPLT). Then, the septage is processed according to a specified standard before being disposed of to the environment.
Although the majority of the community members have access to septic tanks, their awareness of desludging remains low. Many individual septic tanks and IPAL Komunal are not desludged so the septage overflows and pollutes the environment. For example, around April 2017, septage in the IPAL Komunal in Ateran sub-village in Tempeh Tengah village, Tempeh sub-district overflew and the septage polluted the environment.
“I am concerned that some community members are still reluctant to desludge and let their septic tanks become full and overflow instead. The decision makers and relevant Local Government Working Units (OPD) have to encourage them to desludge,” said Endah, who has been working in the water and sanitation sector since 2000.
Endah’s concerns turned into hope when in mid 2017 Lumajang district was selected as one of the USAID IUWASH PLUS district partners to increase the people’s access to safe water and safely-managed sanitation. Since then, Endah and her team have participated in various promotion and advocacy activities on safe water and safely-managed sanitation supported by USAID IUWASH PLUS. Endah admitted that these activities have improved her technical knowledge on safe water and safely-managed sanitation and leveraged her advocacy and education skills.
With USAID IUWASH PLUS’s assistance, Endah and her team also actively discussed the safe water and safely-managed sanitation concept with the relevant OPDs, such as the Health Office, Environmental Office, Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappeda), and the Community Health Center (Puskesmas). Endah highlighted that strong inter-sectoral cooperation is crucial to make safe water and safely-managed sanitation accessible and affordable for the community members.
While strengthening the inter-sectoral cooperation, USAID IUWASH PLUS facilitated Endah and her team in PUTR and other OPDs to advocate the Regent and the Local Parliament (DPRD) to prioritize the domestic wastewater program, including preparing the supporting local regulations. This advocacy process was conducted through both formal and informal discussions.
In addition, Endah and her team proposed the establishment of a Regional Technical Implementing Unit of Domestic Wastewater Management (UPTD PALD) under the PUTR Office to support the implementation of the regional regulation of domestic wastewater management. To support this proposal, Endah and her team conducted an academic review to assess if the PUTR Office has sufficient human and financial resources to manage a new working unit. The results show that the PUTR Office has adequate resources to manage UPTD PALD. This academic review is used as a refence for the Regent to enact the Regent Executive Decision on the UPTD PALD Establishment.
During the advocacy process, Endah admitted that some people perceived that prioritizing domestic wastewater management will not improve the regional revenue. “But I always tell them that if we protect water sources from domestic wastewater pollution, the people will be healthy, and the government can save the budget on health,” said Endah.
Gradually, the collaboration of PUTR Office and other relevant OPDs in improving domestic wastewater management started to bear fruit. At the end of December 2017, the Lumajang district government agreed to establish the UPTD PALD under the PUTR Office. Additionally, the Lumajang Regent also enacted the Regional Regulation on Domestic Wastewater Management No.6/018 in February 2018, and is currently completing the Regional Regulation on Desludging Tariff as well as discussing the Regent’s Regulation on Regular Desludging Services.
“This regulation will help Lumajang district to access a bigger amount of the National Government Budget for domestic wastewater management,” said Endah. Following the enactment of the Regional Regulation on Domestic Wastewater Management, the Lumajang government district proposed On-Site and Off-Site Domestic Wastewater Management Systems (SPALDS and SPALTS) to the value of Rp10.4 billion using the 2019 Special Allocation Budget (DAK) of the Ministry of Public Works and Housing.
“I will keep on creating more well-thought sanitation and water programs and educate the community members so that they are able to protect their water and sanitation facilities on their own,” Endah promises.
Note: Srikandi is a name of a heroine in Javanese mythology
-Sonny Suharsono/Andri Pujikurniawati-
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