Kampong Improvement Program: Providing basic services

Kampong Improvement Program: Providing basic services

By Dean Carignan

JAKARTA (JP): Call it growing pains. Indonesia's cities, among
the most rapidly expanding in Asia, are attracting new residents
at a dizzying pace. The influx of residents has far outrun the
ability of cities to expand in a planned and organized manner.
The result: a proliferation of unplanned, low-income
neighborhoods, commonly called urban kampongs.

Urban kampongs are home to over half of Indonesia's city
dwellers, or some 24 million people. In Jakarta alone, the
kampong population is estimated at three million. Because these
neighborhoods tend to develop in an unplanned, haphazard fashion,
they often lack such essential services as a clean water supply
and public sanitation facilities. The absence of these services
exacts a high toll on the health and well-being of kampong
residents. The lack of clean water systems, for example, is
accompanied by a high prevalence of water-borne disease,
especially among the young. Infant mortality rates are
particularly high in urban kampongs. In some areas, local water
sources are so polluted that residents resort to purchasing
bottled water at very high prices.

The environmental impact of unplanned neighborhoods is equally
distressing, as limited groundwater supplies in urban areas
become polluted from inadequate disposal of household wastes.

As early as the 1960s, the government recognized the need to
confront the sub-standard conditions in the country's urban
kampongs. It was agreed that servicing these densely populated,
fast-growing neighborhoods would require a community-based
approach. In 1969 the government launched the Kampong Improvement
Program (KIP). The program began in Jakarta, and has since spread
nationwide.

KIP seeks to develop basic infrastructure in the kampong with
minimum disturbance to the residents and with maximum community
involvement. When a neighborhood is selected for the KIP program,
a committee of local residents is consulted to determine which
services are most urgently needed. The most common improvements
include potable water supply, sewage disposal, solid waste
collection, drainage systems, and roads and footpaths.

Success stories

One of KIP's many success stories is Pasar Manggis, South
Jakarta. Before the KIP program arrived, Pasar Manggis had no
central source of clean water. Residents had to dig wells or use
hand pumps to access groundwater, which often disappeared during
the dry season.

Under the KIP program, Pasar Manggis has received several
crucial improvements, including a clean water system which brings
running water directly into the resident's homes. Access to clean
water has had a marked effect on the health of local residents.

"We used to pump water from the ground, but it was often
unpure", explains Husnah, a local mother. "The water from the new
system is much cleaner. Now we use this water for cooking and
drinking, and use our old pump for washing. My family is much
healthier now".

"Before the clean water system was installed, skin diseases
and diarrhea caused by unpure water were a major problem in the
neighborhood", explains Dr. Kenny Zairendra Amir, who runs the
local health clinic. "Now these illness are only a very minor
concern."

The local clinic, or puskesmas, is also part of the
government's efforts to upgrade living conditions in the Pasar
Manggis.

The KIP program also provided Pasar Manggis with a much-needed
drainage system to keep rainwater from collecting on local
streets.

"During the rainy season, the water could reach waist-high in
the streets", recalls Maemunah, a local resident. "Often we could
not leave our houses, even to visit the market." The new drainage
system keeps the roads passable year-round.

Pasar Manggis got a chance to showcase these improvements when
America's First Lady Hillary Clinton visited the neighborhood as
part of a tour of the KIP program during her November visit to
Indonesia. After the visit to Pasar Manggis, Mrs. Clinton praised
the KIP program, describing it as "something the world should
know about."

Mrs. Clinton also praised KIP for an innovative source of
funding: the U.S. Agency for International Development's Housing
Guaranty Program. Under this program, the U.S. Government
guaranties loans from private U.S. firms to the Government of
Indonesia. These loans, which are repaid over a period of 30
years, are used to support urban infrastructure programs,
including KIP, throughout the country. Since 1988 the program has
provided US$145 million in guaranteed loans to Indonesia. The KIP
program also receives funding from the Government of Indonesia,
the World Bank and other donors.

Community participation

A strong emphasis on community participation underlies KIP's
success. The program engages local residents in the planning,
construction and maintenance of neighborhood improvements, thus
giving them a sense of ownership and pride in the new services.

"My husband donated land for the water system", explains
Muhani, a resident of Pasar Manggis, "and we all worked to clean
and prepare the ground for the installation. When the neighboring
village saw how well the system worked, they arranged to have one
installed too."

Community involvement also increases the sustainability of
infrastructure improvements.

"Residents are better able and more willing to maintain
projects they had a hand in planning and implementing," says
William Frej of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

An unexpected, but highly welcomed, aspect of KIP is a
stimulus effect on private home improvements. The introduction of
basic services into the kampong brings a sense of pride to the
neighborhood, encouraging residents to invest their own resources
in improving their homes.

"When the area looks nice, the people want their houses to
look nice", says Dr. Kenny of Pasar Manggis. It is estimated that
every Rp 10,000 invested through the KIP program generates an
additional Rp 20,000 in private improvements. Better
infrastructure also means better local industry. The provision of
basic services allows local enterprises to operate more
effectively, generating jobs and economic growth in the kampong.

KIP has received acclaim as Indonesia's most successful effort
at poverty alleviation. To date, the program has been implemented
in over 300 cities across the archipelago, bringing essential
services to more than six million urban residents. Recently,
urban development experts have recognized the program as one of
the most successful neighborhood revitalization programs in the
world. Officials from many developing nations have visited
Indonesia to study and the program in hopes of emulating it at
home.

The KIP program is part of a larger effort by the government
to ameliorate urban living conditions by working at the local
level. This decentralized approach is becoming crucial, as rapid
industrialization draws more and more people to Indonesia's
cities. Experts estimate that by the year 2000 the urban
population in Indonesia will exceed 90 million, roughly 44% of
the country's total population.

Among the government's efforts to decentralized urban planning
is the Municipal Finance for Environmental Infrastructure
Program. This program seeks to enhance the management and
financial capabilities of local governments, thus improving their
ability to develop and maintain urban infrastructure. Such
decentralized measures will prove a critical step in easing the
"growing pains" as Indonesia matures into an industrialized
nation.