On August 1, 2017, USAID IUWASH PLUS in collaboration with the Directorate of
Environmental Sanitation Development (PPLP) of Ministry of Public Works and Housing (MPWH) facilitated a workshop on identifying opportunity for PDAM to be directly involved in wastewater management. The 42 participants from national ministries, local governments, PDAMs, Perpamsi, Forkalim, USDP, and The World Bank discussed some important issues including developing the criteria for PDAM to take responsibility for wastewater management in their location.
Ibu Marshalina Pasaribu, the Head of Standardization and Institutions Sub-directorate under the PPLP Directorate, in her presentation mentioned the challenge in the acceleration of safely-managed sanitation service, and the potential of established institutions like PDAM to deal with wastewater management.
Currently, there are 13 sewerage systems: Medan, Parapat, Batam, DKI Jakarta, Tangerang, Bandung, Cirebon, Surakarta, Balikpapan, Banjarmasin, Manado, and 2 regional-scale in Jogjakarta and Denpasar. MPWH is planning to build additional sewerage system in Banda Aceh, Palembang, Pekan Baru, Jambi, Makassar, Bogor, Surabaya, and Mataram. There are some best practices for PDAM in managing wastewater, but in term of numbers it still very small: PDAM Bandung, Surakarta, Medan, and Balikpapan
It needs some efforts to engage other PDAMs that have the potential to manage wastewater. In order to do that, it is essential to understand the nature and the readiness for PDAM to be qualified for managing wastewater. Therefore, during the workshop, USAID IUWASH PLUS presented the draft concept of PDAMs’ selection criteria to be qualified in managing wastewater. There are three aspects of selection criteria: (a) institution and regulation, (b) financing, and (c) technical operational.
After the presentation, the participants were divided into three groups to discuss detail aspects of the criteria above. The discussion results from the groups containing the input, suggestions and corrections for the criteria were then shared in the plenary session. USAID IUWASH PLUS in consultation with the PPLP Directorate will revise the draft concept of PDAMs’ selection criteria, and the draft concept will be trialed to PDAM to assess whether or not the PDAM is qualified in managing the wastewater.
“This workshop is very useful in providing new insight of sanitation management for PDAM, especially for Domestic Wastewater (Air Limbah Domestik/ALD) issues. USAID IUWASH PLUS program is very helpful in supporting the execution of the tasks related to ALD,” said Heri Batangari Nasution, the Director of Wastewater of Tirtanadi PDAM from North Sumatra.
