Summary Waste Water Seminar by PERPAMSI & Establishment of FORKALIM 29 - 30 September 2003

Background:
PERPAMSI, with financial assistance of USAEP, organised a two day seminar in Jakarta for all institutions currently operating Waste Water Treatment systems. This has never been done sofar in Indonesia, partly because there is no national organisation for Waste Water system operators.

Purpose:
The purpose of the seminar was three fold:
(1) to exchange experiences, common problems, answer questions in different fields
(2) to present experiences from Malaysia waste water operators; current government policies; training opportunities and decentralized sanitation systems
(3) to create a network, FORKALIM (Forum Komunikasi Air Limbah) of participating institutions as a means to improve service provision by the Waste Water operators.

Participation:
Participants came from 11 different locations:
• PDAM Kota Bandung, Kota Cirebon, Kota Medan, Kota Surakarta, Kota Banjarmasin and Kota Bengkulu
• DINAS Kota Yogyakarta, Kota Bogor, Kota Tangerang (2 different departments),
• PD PAL Jaya
In addition there was participation from other institutions:
• Akademi Tirta Wiyata, Technical School in Magelang (Diploma programme in Environmental Engineering) for whole seminar
• Indah Water Konsortium, Malaysia (responsible for all Waste Water Treatment systems in Malaysia) for whole seminar
• PT Biothane, company involved in Anaerobic Waste Water Treatment processes in South East Asia for whole seminar
• Worldbank, moderating one session on financial / institutional issues.

Presentations:
There were presentations from :
• PERPAMSI - Summary data and key issues from questionnaire (see attached)
• Indah Water - Sewerage systems in Malaysia
• Kimpraswil - Current policies of Government on Waste Water
• IATPI - Training and Certification programme for Waste Water
Treatment plant operators
• BEST - Decentralized Waste Water Treatment systems (community
sanitation systems by NGO in Kabupaten Tangerang)
• Participants - PDAM Surakarta, Medan, PD Pal Jaya , DINAS Yogyakarta

Key Issues :

The key issues identified in the questionnaire and during the workshop can be summarized as follows:

Technical:
• Part of current system old (Dutch time); requires rehabilitation (replacement/enlarging diameters).
• Sometimes elevation downstream higher then upstream, resulting in very deep construction.
• Leakage in connections between pipes and with house connections, resulting in infiltration.
• Unstable electrical pressure.
• Difficult to treat “heavy” sewerage (oils, detergents, industrial waste, etc)

Institutional:
• Current operation by three institutions (PDAM, PEMDA, PD) each with strong and weak points:
   - By PDAM: Cost subsidized by income from water supply; reduces cashflow / equity for water supply improvement. Billing easier through water bill.
   - By DINAS: Easier to receive subsidy (operational budget) from PEMDA. Direct billing very difficult.
   - By PD: difficult to expand or even break even; for billing need relation with other departments (to provide sanctions).
• No one completely satisfied with current systems => requires comparative study and clear policy.
• Low priority for WW activities / investment by Local (and National) Government and Parliament
• No public campaign on raising public awareness for negative effects of poor WW management
• Number of staff insufficient and education/ experience in general much too low; also most staff lack interest & motivation to be active in the waste water department.
• No specific training programmes yet on municipal waste water technology, management/financing and customer & public relation.

Financial :
• System of "polluter pays" , meaning everyone within a certain coverage area contributes to the total cost is not yet applied in Indonesia. This could be done, for example, by including sewerage charge in property tax and/or in obligation for construction of new housing estates.
• Various billing systems are currently in place:
   - Direct billing only to Waste Water connections
   - Billing through Water Supply bill only Waste Water connections
   - Surcharge (25 - 30%) on all Water Supply Connections
• Monthly Bill for household connections from 500 Rp    - 12,000 Rp per month per connection.
• Almost all institutions can not yet recover monthly operating cost. For capital cost (rehabilitation / expansion) all institutions rely on Local and Central Government grants.
• No system in place yet allowing connecting fees to be paid in instalments; in some cases new connections are installed free of charge (as incentive).
• When small industry and hotels are connected, they provide good cross subsidy opportunities.
• No willingness to pay studies done to determine how much customer can / want to pay for sewerage service.

Establishment of FORKALIM:
At the end of the seminar all participants agreed with the establishment of FORKALIM (Forum Komunikasi Air Limbah), to be hosted by PERPAMSI and open for membership by all institutions operating Waste Water systems (PDAM, DINAS and PD).

The main objective of FORKALIM will be "To help the members improve their performance in the delivery of waste water services. This includes improving efficiency in operation and management, achieving financial viability, and advocating for reforms in the sector to improve the policy environment".

Key partners for FORKALIM will be :
• Donor agencies for expertise, financial support
• Central Government Departments for policy development, awareness campaigns
• Local Governments / Local Parliaments for awareness building, support campaigns
• NGO's (international and local) for community/decentralised sanitation programmes.

Possible Activities
(1) Management / Operation:
• Comparative Studies (systems, technologies, etc)
• Exchange of experience (within RI and abroad)
• Seminar / Workshops
   - Institutional arrangements
   - Financing (Capital <=> operational cost ; Retribution systems)
   - DEWATS
• Pilot projects, like Combination of formal - community based systems
• Set up & operate Database / Library / PERPAMSI website to provide and exchange of information & experience
2) Human Resource Development
• Training Programmes
   - Technical (operation / maintenance)
   - Management / Institutional
   - Public & Customer Relations
• Study Tours (within RI and abroad)
• Apprenticeship between companies
(3) Public and Customer Relation
• Public Campaigns
   - Government (local & central) / Parliament o General public (awareness)
• Customers relation
   - Billing / information / complaint systems
   - Customer Survey's (service <=> willingness to pay)

Action plan 2003
(1) Formal establishment of FORKALIM in PERPAMSI
(2) Invite 11 institutions currently operating Sewerage system to officially join FORKALIM
(3) Inform partners (donor agencies, Government, NGO’s) of FORKALIM establishment
(4) Check additional locations with possible sewerage systems (Surabaya, Semarang, Malang, Makassar, etc)
(5) Develop Action plan for 2004 - 2005:
training, seminars, comparative studies, public campaigns, etc.