On April 16, 2019, Malang city government and USAID IUWASH PLUS conducted a focus group discussion to prepare the call center mechanism of Malang City UPT PAL (regional technical implementing unit of wastewater management).
The discussion was attended by around 11 participants from the Office of Public Works and Spatial Planning (DPUPR), UPT PAL, Malang City PDAM, and USAID IUWASH PLUS.
During the discussion, the Head of Malang City UPT PAL, Kuswandari Yushinta presented the progress of cooperation agreement (PKS) between DPUPR and 11 private desludging companies. The head of DPUPR is ready to sign the agreements.
Through this cooperation, the private desludging companies will receive the desludging requests from the community through the UPT PAL call center. However, the call center has not been active, because of the lack of knowledge on its mechanism. The collaboration between DPUPR, UPT PAL, and the private desludging companies, as well as the preparation of the call center mechanism are important because up to now the desludging and sludge transport service in Malang city has been fully done by the private sector, while the UPT PAL only handles the treatment and process at the Septage Treatment Plant and its operation.
As a follow up. USAID IUWASH PLUS facilitates the Malang City UPT PAL in preparing the standard operating procedure (SOP) for call center implementation and building the capacity of the UPT PAL staff serving as call center operators.
“I would like to thank USAID IUWASH PLUS for improving our knowledge so that we could deliver better services to the community,” said Ari Kuswandari, the Head of UPT PAL in Malang city.
