Suherdjoko, Surakarta – Up to 80 million Indonesian people are believed to lack private toilets, which means they tend to defecate anywhere, an official said Tuesday.
Speaking at the Sanitation City Summit's media gathering in Surakarta, Central Java, the head of the sanitation technical team's secretariat, Nugroho Tri Utomo, said this was a bad habit that needed to be wiped out.
"It means a third of the Indonesian population routinely pollutes the environment, by defecating in rivers or any open spaces."
Nugroho is also the head of the subdirectorate of drinking water and liquid waste at the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas).
"The volume of feces discharged reaches 14,000 tons. "This pollutes dams, rivers and groundwater," he said.
Indonesia has been at a critical sanitation stage as the pollution has been worsened by the huge amounts of waste from both households and industrial companies, according to Nugroho.
The destruction of the environment has increased at an alarming rate, he added. Nugroho said 75 percent of rivers in Indonesia, especially those crossing the big cities, have already been badly polluted.
"Regional water companies (PDAM) should be highly appreciated for their success to change polluted water into drinkable water."
The worsening quality of the environment has caused many incidents of diarrhea and related ailments. "The damaged environment indirectly leads to 50 deaths among 1,000 newborn babies, which are caused by the emergence of various types of illnesses," he said.
The lack of sanitation has increased families' medical costs. Each family has to set aside up to Rp 600,000 (US$54.50) per year.
Due to the various effects on the environment, the government needs to build an integrated sanitation system the community can use cheaply and healthily, Nugroho said.
Meanwhile, the director general of Housing and Settlement at the Public Works Ministry, Budi Yuwono, explained there were 11 Indonesian cities that already had an integrated sanitation system.
Out of the 11 cities, only Surakarta has been able to improve the performance of its waste treatment plant.
"Similar waste treatment plants have been built in cities like Cirebon, Yogyakarta, Balikpapan, Bandung, Surakarta, Banjarmasin, Denpasar, Jakarta and others," he said.
"But Yogyakarta, for example, has only been able to utilize about 50 percent of its operation capacity, even though it was built 14 years earlier." He added Bandung could only utilize 30 percent of its capacity although the facility had been built 30 years ago.
Budi also urged the central government to set aside more funds for sanitation.
"So far Rp 1.2 trillion has been allocated, but when it is distributed by the regional administration, most of the money is used to develop drinking water facilities."