Sewerage system concept introduced
JAKARTA (JP): A group of Australian companies held a one-day workshop at Hotel Borobudur in Central Jakarta on Tuesday to introduce comprehensive concepts of the Total Integrated Wastewater and Sewerage System (TIWASS).
The workshop was jointly organized by the city administration and the state government of New South Wales, Australia, under a sister state-province agreement.
The director of Australia's Global Grid, Mark Bingham, said with the system, the city administration could serve 2.25 million households in 2010. The construction project would cost some US$4 billion, he said.
"We plan a yearly expenditure of $500 million to $700 million for seven years," he said.
The system includes an integration of service coverage, managing institutions, a planning approach, financing scheme and construction scheme. It also promises residents' active involvement.
Governor Sutiyoso said while addressing the opening of the workshop that Jakarta needed a waste water and sewerage system to keep the environment clean.
"Jakarta needs such a system to provide better service to its residents and to keep the environment clean. We can learn this system and apply it here," he told the workshop participants.
Head of the Regional Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedalda) Aboejoewono Aboeprajitno said the city administration was still looking for a suitable sewer system to be applied here.
"This workshop is intended to present the information of the new system as well as to get public input," he said.
Director of city-owned sewer company PD Pal Jaya Eben Kusbini told reporters that the company only served 220,000 residents, or 2.8 percent of the city population, in Setiabudhi and Tebet areas, South Jakarta.
"Currently we are developing our network to serve buildings along Jl. Sudirman in Central Jakarta, Jl. Hayam Wuruk in West Jakarta and Jl. Pluit in North Jakarta," he said.
A professor of sanitary engineering at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Asis Djajadiningrat, said the system needed modification before it could be applied here.
"We must remember that the condition in Jakarta is different from Australia, which has a low resident density level," he told The Jakarta Post.
He preferred a more decentralized system due to diversified housing conditions in Jakarta.
"It's better for the city administration to establish treatment plants at a local level, such as the subdistrict or community unit (RW) levels," he said.
"We must consider Pondok Indah housing complex and Tebet residential area, both in South Jakarta, have different problems. Each area has its own problems, thus a separate approach is needed," he added.
Asis said the city administration should provide good service, especially to residents living in slum areas.
Sociologist Sarjono Yatiman from the University of Indonesia said the city administration could simply establish the system from a technological point of view.
"The problem is whether residents are ready to adopt the technology," he told the Post. He said most residents live in rural areas with limited access to technology.
"Another problem is whether the residents can afford the service at a reasonable price or not," he added, while suggesting a cross subsidy. (05)