In November 2016, Medan city government in North Sumatra, with support from USAID IUWASH (the former project of USAID IUWASH PLUS), enacted the Regional Regulation No 4/2016 to support Regular Desludging Services (LLTT). However, up to mid-2018 Medan city was struggling to select an organization capable of delivering the LLTT.
To assist the Medan city government overcome this issue, from the end of 2017 to March 2018, USAID IUWASH PLUS conducted a study to identify LLTT operator requirements and potential organizations for delivering the service. The study found that PDAM Tirtanadi is the only organization eligible for managing the LLTT since it has sufficient capacity and experience in domestic wastewater management.
Since 1997, PDAM Tirtanadi has delivered desludging services for 19,000 people in Medan city through SPALDT. After obtaining the study result, USAID IUWASH PLUS presented these findings to the relevant offices, such as Bappeda, Housing and Settlement Office (Dinas Perkim) of Medan city, MPWH, and Legal Bureau. From these findings, the city government agreed to establish a 25-year cooperation with PDAM Tirtanadi to implement LLTT, and authorize the PDAM to decide the desludging tariff.
To formalize the cooperation, Medan city government and PDAM Tirtanadi, with support from USAID IUWASH PLUS, drafted a Cooperation Agreement (PKS) early July 2018 after having input from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Public Works and Housing. Feedback from the ministries are crucial to support the cooperation since PDAM Tirtanadi is owned by provincial government. After one month of the PKS drafting process, PDAM Tirtanadi, MPWH, Dinas Perkim, and USAID IUWASH PLUS presented the draft to Medan city Mayor, Dzulmi Eldin. On August 2018, the Mayor approved the PKS.
Medan city government and PDAM Tirtanadi will sign the PKS early 2019. This agreement signing will also be followed by the LLTT soft-launch and promotion.
In the first three years of LLTT, PDAM Tirtanadi targets to serve 25,000 customers who have had septic tanks, middle-class residential areas, and business centers.
Yet, in the long run, PDAM Tirtanadi expects to deliver LLTT services for all households in Medan city, which is about 430,000 households.
“I hope our cooperation with PDAM Tirtanadi will help us improve domestic wastewater management in Medan city, and accelerate our achievements to the 2019 Universal Access targets,” said M Husni, the Head of Sanitation and Landscapping Office of Medan city.
USAID IUWASH PLUS is assisting PDAM Tirtanadi to calculate desludging tariff and identify household septage containments in Medan city that meet the LLTT requirements, such as having desludging access.
-Zulfa Ermiza-