German NGOs lead sanitation in Java<\/p>\n
Christina Schott, Contributor, Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
Earlier the water of the river here was colored -- a kind of
\ndirty brownish. Now it looks like water again.<\/p>\n
From the top of the Serangan bridge, the village situated
\nright beside the Winongo river looks quite idyllic: Fish traps
\nare rowed up along the river as children are playing at the river
\nside, which is bathed in palms and other greenery.<\/p>\n
As one ventures into the labyrinth of small huts and houses,
\nthough, the sheer number and density of human beings living very
\nclose to each other becomes evident. And until the beginning of
\nthis year one could also smell it, since all the waste mankind
\nproduces inevitably ends up being dumped into the river through
\nan open canal system -- as is the case in many settlements in the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
The same river water is also used for bathing, as a community
\ntoilet and cooking area, often at the same time.<\/p>\n
But the smell at Ngampilan has gone. The bathrooms and
\nkitchens of the kampung are now all connected with subterranean
\npipes to a wastewater system under some manholes on the paved
\nstreet, that were built with the help of the German non-profit
\norganizations BORDA (Bremen Overseas Research and Development
\nAssociation) and GTZ (Association for Technical Cooperation) and
\nthe DEWATS (Decentralized Wastewater Treatment System) project in
\nYogyakarta.<\/p>\n
The coarsest dirt is separated in three sedimentation
\nchambers, connected to an anaerobic reactor that intensifies the
\ncontact between the bacteria and the sewage in a digestion
\nprocess throughout several chambers. The concentration of the
\ndiarrhea-causing E-Coli bacteria, for example, can be reduced up
\nto 99 percent by this treatment.<\/p>\n
Before there were just a few toilets, shared by many people.
\nThe smell was terrible, especially in the mornings and close to
\nthe junction of the canals close to our rubbish container at the
\nriver side, said Purnomo, one of the senior figures in the
\nvillage.<\/p>\n
Now most of the houses have their own bathrooms. And without
\nthe smell one feels automatically healthier.<\/p>\n
The wastewater filtration system at Ngampilan is only one of
\nthe more than 75 projects that BORDA has already realized in the
\ncountry during the last fifteen years -- in cooperation with the
\nlocal non-governmental organizations BEST (Bina Ekonomi Sosial
\nTerpadu), LPTP (Lembaga Pengembangan Teknologi Pedesaan) and Bali
\nFokus.<\/p>\n
Their aim is to improve the quality of water by building
\nwastewater treating filters and sanitary facilities.<\/p>\n
The sanitary problems caused by bad or non-existent sewage
\nsystems are the reason for illnesses such as diarrhea and typhus,
\nespecially for children: With around 900,000 cases of typhus per
\nyear, Indonesia has the highest rate in all of Asia.<\/p>\n
The economic damage for Indonesia caused by inadequate sewage
\ntreatment is estimated to be a whopping Rp 47 trillion
\n(approximately US$5 billion) per year.<\/p>\n
The DEWATS project is able to fill the gaps between
\nsophisticated expensive treatment technologies and primitive
\nabsorption habits that seriously endanger groundwater quality and
\npublic health. This solution fits very well for many sectors in
\nIndonesia -- not only for the human settlements, but also for
\nsmall- and medium-sized businesses, said Andreas Ulrich, the
\nrepresentative of BORDA in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
In addition to the many densely populated settlements --
\nhospitals, hotels, small businesses, slaughterhouses and cattle
\nfarms are the target of DEWATS projects.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, especially for the agro-industries, is the
\nwastewater system side effects of producing biogas: Tofu making
\nor cattle farms can use the huge biogas output again for cooking
\nand heating.<\/p>\n
Impressively demonstrated at the BORDA office in Yogyakarta:
\nWhile the water of the last filters at the house-owned sewage
\nsystem is watering a beautiful tropical garden, the self-produced
\nbiogas is used for the office kitchen.<\/p>\n
The installation costs of a DEWATS project are amazingly low,
\nsince the important parts work all without technical energy and
\nmost of the materials are locally available. Operation and
\nmaintenance can be done by locals after having been trained by an
\nexpert.<\/p>\n
We can only reduce the costs, if the people themselves
\ncontribute to the project, Andreas Ulrich said. This is only
\npossible if they understand the urgency of the problem. For this,
\nthere is a kind of self-selection for our projects.<\/p>\n
What occurrs if the motivation is not high enough, can be seen
\nat the Klaten Islamic Hospital: Although the wastewater system
\nworks very well, its effect is almost zero, since the polluted
\nmud in the filter is carried to the next river and dumped there
\nwith all its hazardous waste and bacteria -- instead of being
\nprocessed at a special plant, or at least partly processed
\ninto natural fertilizer.<\/p>\n
The people and the government have to cooperate with each
\nother if our wastewater problem is to work well, said Peter Yan,
\nconsultant for the Ngampilan project. What is the use, if we get
\nthe best results right here, but just a hundred meters up river
\nthey still dump all their waste into the water?<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the positive example of the DEWATS project at
\nthe Ngampilan settlement has been successful: The important
\nparameter, the Chemical Oxygen Demand, previously was at the
\nlevel of 160 mg\/l, but is now at 55 mg\/l (standard: 80 mg\/l), the
\nBiological Oxygen Demand sunk from 91 to 39 mg\/l.<\/p>\n
\"Maybe I still wouldn't recommend drinking our water,\" Purnomo
\nretorted, \"but who knows in the future?\"<\/p>",
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