Sanitation in RI getting worse: UN

Sanitation in RI getting worse: UN

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia suffers a whopping US$4.7 billion in economic losses
per year or $12 per family per month due to its poor sewerage
system, a United Nations task force says.

Co-Chairman of the UN Task Force on Water and Sanitation
Albert Wright said on Friday that to make things worse, Indonesia
suffered repeated local epidemics of gastrointestinal infections
and had the highest incidence of typhoid in East Asia as
municipal sewerage system coverage stood at below 5 percent.

"Poor environmental sanitation brings economic loss and
reduces the quality of life, especially for women and children.
The situation in Indonesia is bad and getting worse," Wright, who
visited Indonesia under the invitation of the World Bank, said.

It is the latest evaluation from the UN task force after the
Indonesian government said last month in its country report
presented in the third World Water Forum (WWF) in Kyoto last
month that only 20 percent of the country's 215 million people
had access to clean water.

The government has also said a number of water-borne diseases
such as diarrhea and typhoid remained rampant in the country.

Poor sanitation and pollution will cause over six million
people to suffer from diarrhea this year, according to a senior
government official.

Wright criticized the central government for having invested
very little in sewerage and sanitation, while local governments
had done nothing in the area.

"Private households invest significantly in individual
sewerage systems," Wright said. There are only one million septic
tanks in the dense Greater Jakarta, home to over 15 million of
people.

However, he said, too much individual on-site human waste
disposal can exceed the assimilative capacity of the local area.

"The question lingers whether Indonesia will be able to meet
the Millennium Development Goals to halve by the year 2015 the
proportion of people who do not have access to basic sanitation,"
he said.

Basah Hernowo, the National Development Planning Agency
(Bappenas) Director for Housing and Human Settlement said that if
the financing was only to come from the government, it was
unlikely that Indonesia would be able to meet the Millennium
Development Goals (MDG) target.

He called on all parties, comprising the government, non-
governmental organizations, donors, the private sector and the
community to cooperate in order to reach the MDG target.

"A change in the development paradigm is needed. The previous
policy of separating sanitation facilities and water supply
should now be in tandem," he said.

Wright agreed with Bambang, saying that basic sanitation was
everybody's business.

"Actually since sanitation is concerned with maintaining a
clean and healthy living environment, it is everybody's business.
All can contribute," he said.

Andrew Steer, World Bank Country Director for Indonesia, said:
"It is time for us to work together to develop a new paradigm to
comprehensively address the growing sanitation crisis that is
facing Indonesia, particularly in densely populated areas".

According to him, the World Bank is currently working with the
government to develop a new policy framework and strategies for
tackling sanitation.