Denpasar Sewerage Development Project officials urged all stakeholders, including residents and government agencies, to work together to improve sanitation awareness, as well as infrastructure for solid waste and drainage.
“Especially in the rainy season, if the drainage and garbage collection systems have been improved, it will help with the success of the sewerage system. It’s a big task for Denpasar to improve these systems,” said Denpasar sewerage consultant team leader, Kuniaki Onishi, on the sidelines of a field trip to the wastewater treatment plant in Suwung on Wednesday.
The wastewater plant, initiated in 1992 by the Public Works Ministry, was constructed in 2003 and started operating in 2008. It has so far installed 8,647 user connections around the areas of Denpasar, Sanur and Kuta, and is targeting 85 percent of the areas’ total population of 417,500 people.
In the last couple of years during the rainy season, the manhole covers of dozens of sewerage maintenance points were reportedly opened by residents in several upstream spots in Denpasar to rid their areas of flood water. The resulting overload of water and strong water pressure from the capital’s upstream areas mixed with wastewater and sludge as it moved downstream causing some manhole covers to burst out of the ground, including in Benoa, in front of senior high school SMA 2 Denpasar, and in front of the Indonesian Navy regional base on Jl. Sesetan. To make matters worse, all sorts of solid waste, such as logs and sand sediment had clogged the sewer pipes.
Head of Bali wastewater treatment plant, Dewa Ayu Puspa Dewi, regretted that many residents still mistook the sewer system for a drainage system.
While a sewer system was designed only for household wastewater, from bathrooms, toilets and kitchens, drainage was a different system designed for flowing rain water and other surface water, she explained.
“In cities all over the world, the sewers and drainage systems are separate. Unfortunately, due to rapid urban growth, the regional administrations are unable to keep up with developing comprehensive drainage systems. Private developers also neglect to build any on their construction sites,” said Puspa.
Head of the Public Works Ministry’s Bali settlement environment health development working unit, Wayan Budiarsa, acknowledged the national project, initiated in 1992, aimed at reducing ground water pollution, had faced numerous challenges from the public, as well as funding constraints.
“The construction of the site was halted for nine years. A sewer system was still a new concept and difficult for people to understand. It required a lot of campaigns to raise awareness to reach where we are today, and we are not done yet,” said Budiarsa. Around 85 percent of the Rp 1 trillion (US$104 million) national project is covered by a loan agreement between the central government and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), with the remaining 15 percent share of construction for the first and second phases being covered by the administrations of Bali province (Rp 36 billion), Badung (Rp 46 billion) and Denpasar (Rp 46 billion).
The 245-kilometer long Denpasar sewerage system is still in its first stage, while the second stage will see further pipe installation and is targeted for completion in July 2013. The conclusion of the third and final phase of the sewerage system is still undetermined.
As of today, Denpasar is among only 13 cities nationwide with a centralized wastewater treatment plant. Other cities are Medan, Prapat, Jakarta, Badung, Cirebon, Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Banjarmasin, Balikpapan, Tangerang and Batam.
He acknowledged that urging users to pay a monthly fee for the service remained an obstacle. “Most of the places serviced are households. A monthly tariff for a households would be up to Rp 25,000, while star-rated hotels could be charged up to Rp 100,000 per available room, and restaurants up to Rp 700,000 depending on the number of seats. “Although we have set a tariff for businesses, like hotels and restaurants, we are still negotiating over the eventual tariff,” said Budiarsa, claiming currently 40 percent of the users connected to the sewer system were paying.
The wastewater tariff is stipulated in a 2011 by-law that also regulates penalties, such as prohibiting renewal of building permits for those with payments in arrears.
While ambitiously targeting construction cost-recovery by the time the second phase commences service, the operator is still figuring out what to do with the sediment from the treated wastewater. “We do not have the technology to process the sediment that has already been collected in our sedimentation pond since 2007. We are thinking of processing it into fertilizer,” said Puspa.
