For 278 houses in RT 01 and 01/RW06 in Katimbang urban village in Makassar city, having piped water just a tap way is bliss. Until early 2019, these households relied on deep well or bore well water for non-consumption purposes.
However, the deep well water is not always available, especially during the dry season, and the bore well water in some houses is not consumable as it tastes bitter and has color. As an alternative, the people spent more to purchase refill water for consumption and water from local vendors for non-consumption purposes.
To address this water scarcity issue, the community in RT 01 and 02 requested the public works office in Makassar city to build a communal water supply system (SPAM) in 2017. As a response to this request, the public works office built a communal SPAM with a capacity of 215 houses in RT 01 and 02. This SPAM construction was funded through 2018 local government’s special allocation budget (DAK) for water amounting to Rp1.3 billion. The construction process took place from September 2018 to January 2019.
The key to sustaining communal SPAM is to involve community in the system operation and maintenance. Therefore, the public works office and USAID IUWASH PLUS supported the beneficiaries in RT 01 and 02 to form a care-taker group in the respective RT in February 2019.
Following the group establishment, in the first week of July 2019 the public works office and USAID IUWASH PLUS trained the communal SPAM care-takers in RT 01 and 02 on how to operate, maintain, and manage the communal SPAM, including how to calculate water tariff.
The SPAM care-taker group and user in RT 01 and 02 agreed to pay water with the price of Rp5,000/m3 every month.
“SPAM is more economical than purchasing water. In the past, I spent Rp14,000 every month to buy refill water and water in jerry can. This month, after using the SPAM, I only spent Rp5,000 this month and more importantly, my family that consists of two persons, can enjoy fresh and clean water any time,” said Mansyur the resident of RT 01.
Besides RT 01 and 02 in Katimbang urban village, the public works office also built three communal SPAMs in two other areas suffering with limited access to clean water using 2018 DAK, namely Bakung and Bulorekeng urban villages. In total, nearly 400 houses have connected to these communal SPAMs.
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