“From the participatory assessment and triggering activities, we found that many households in Punggawan village do not have toilets and septic tanks,” said Dessy, a staff of Puskesmas Gilingan.
Puskesmas (community health center) Gilingan, with supports from USAID IUWASH PLUS, conducted a participatory assessment and triggering activities in Punggawan village in 2017. The participatory assessment and triggering activities allowed the community members to actively observe, analyze, and discuss their existing sanitation facility and hygiene behaviors, such as number and location of household that still practicing open defecation, household with toilets and septic tanks, source of water available for the neighborhood.
Through these activities, Puskesmas Gilingan also educated the community members that human waste should be contained in septic tanks and the tanks need to be emptied regularly to protect environment and people’s health. This message is align with the safely managed sanitation promotion conducted by USAID IUWASH PLUS.
The activities found 860 of the total 942 households in the village have toilets with septic tanks at home. Around 77 households have toilets at home without septic tanks. The remaining five households do not have toilets at home and only use the public toilet without septic tank. The community members who do not have access to septic tanks usually dispose human waste from latrines directly to gutters in their surroundings.
Realizing the exposure to human waste could bring devastating impacts for public health and environment, the Punggawan village government is committed to seek assistance to provide community members with safe toilets.
Supporting the village government initiative, in December 2017, Puskesmas Gilingan used Jumat Sehat (Healthy Friday) program, known as JuSe, to discuss the idea of self-funded building of toilets and septic tanks for the poor Punggawan residents with other community members. JuSe is Surakarta Health Office’s initiative to encourage community members to care about their environment and to practice hygiene behaviors.
After conducting series of community discussion, Puskesmas and the community members decided to help Sumarmi, an old poor woman in Punggawan village. Sumarmi lives alone in her house with size of 3x4m that she inherited from her parents. Sumarmi actually has had an old toilet without any fecal containment located 5 meter from her house
“I feel so ashamed of not having a toilet with septic tank and making my neighborhood dirty. But, I have no other choice. I do not have any money to build a septic tank,” said Sumarmi.
To help Sumarmi build a new toilet and septic tank, Puskesmas Gilingan and community members raised funds from December 2017 to March 2018. They sold self-designed t-shirts and bags online and from mouth to mouth. Through the fundraising, Puskesmas Gilingan and community members collected Rp4.5 million to purchase materials and pay for masons.
USAID IUWASH PLUS assisted Puskesmas Gilingan to design the toilet and septic tank, as well as to supervise the construction. Punggawan village government also helped to manage the masons. In August 2018, Sumarmi finally has a new toilet and septic tank. “I would like to thank everyone for helping me build a new toilet and septic tank. I am so happy. I will not make my neighborhood dirty anymore,” she said.
Punggawan village government also cooperates with Rotary club of Solo chapter—a philanthropy foundation, to rehabilitate public bathing, washing, and toilets in Punggawan village and build septic tanks connected to the facilities in January to February, 2018.
In addition, the village government also received assistance from the Housing, Settlements, and Land office (Disperum KPP) of Surakarta city to build 1 IPAL Komunal (Communal Wastewater Treatment Plant) from September to early November 2018. This facility serves 50 households.
A local church also assisted to build eight septic tanks for eight households in early to mid-November, 2018.
Sumarmi and other community members, who have recently accessed to septic tanks, have registered for regular desludging service provided by Perumda Air Minum Surakarta (Surakarta Municipal Drinking Water Company). They will pay for the desludging service in monthly installment for three years.
The collaboration involving the Punggawan village government, Disperum KPP, Puskesmas Gilingan, the community, Rotary Club, and the local church is an excellent example of the multi-stakeholder cooperation to protect ecosystem from untreated human waste. With these cooperation, Punggawan village government expects to be free from open defecation practice soon.
Disposal of untreated human waste has become a serious sanitation issue worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported 4.5 billion people do not have access to safely managed sanitation and 892 million of people still practice open defecation.
Exposure to such immense scale of uncaptured and untreated human waste brings devastating impacts to public health, environment, and economy.
Therefore, the 2018 World Toilet Day focuses the toilet and nature. This celebration highlights the significance of building toilets and sanitation systems that work in harmony with ecosystem to protect people.
–Edy Triyanto-
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