On November 29, 2018, USAID Deputy Mission Director, Ryan Washburn, visited Jayapura city to observe the project implementation in the field.
During the meeting, USAID Deputy Mission Director had an opportunity to discuss USAID supports for Papua with a number of high rank officials in Papua, including the Assistant III for General Affairs of Papua province, the Head of the Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappeda) of Jayapura district representing Jayapura Regent, and the Head of Bappeda of Papua province.
In the discussion, USAID’s projects in Papua, such as USAID IUWASH PLUS, USAID LESTARI, and USAID SCAA also presented their programs briefly. The Assistant III, Elysa Auri, highly appreciated USAID projects in Papua and hoped that they run well with the supports from local governments.
The meeting was followed with a field visit to RT 03/ RW 05 in Imbi village to witness the collaboration between USAID IUWASH PLUS and the City Without Slums (KOTAKU) program to improve the community members’ sanitation access through communal wastewater treatment plant (IPAL) construction and behavior changes.
In this collaboration, KOTAKU is responsible for building the infrastructure, and USAID IUWASH PLUS supports the behavior changes activities.
Based on USAID IUWASH PLUS baseline survey in 2018, more than half of the total 56 households in RT 03/RW 05 in Imbi village do not have access to toilets with septic tanks. The community members mostly work as day laborers and they lack of affordability to build the facilities at their own cost.
The IPAL Komunal construction in RT 03/RW 05 in Imbi village began in August 2018, and the construction is still ongoing. Once the construction is completed, ten houses will connect to this facility.
“Community members should improve their capacity to maintain this facility,” said USAID Deputy Mission Director, Ryan Washburn.
Besides witnessing the IPAL Komunal construction, the Deputy Mission Director also learned that PDAM Jayapura still has 46% of Non-Revenue Water (NRW) rate. To address this issue, USAID IUWASH PLUS assists PDAM Jayapura to collect digital information of its piping network using GIS so that the company will be able to monitor the NRW locations better.
USAID IUWASH PLUS will also assist PDAM Jayapura to develop a business plan to improve its business.
Responding to this plan, USAID Deputy Mayor of Jayapura city and PDAM Jayapura supervisory board are committed to use the business plan, after it is developed, for the PDAM Directors’ annual evaluation.
