Yogyakarta. The village of Darakan in the Sub-district of Prenggan, District of Kota Gede, Yogyakarta, is one of the villages through which the Gadjah Wong river flows. The locals have varied professions; most of them are laborers, some are office workers, and some are silver craftsmen, as Kota Gede has long been known as Yogyakarta’s center for silver crafts.

In 2005, in support of the clean river program, the Regional Government of Yogyakarta built a Water Waste Management Plant (IPAL) in Kota Gede in the RW13 / RT 57 area. In RW13, the IPAL was built to serve 100 families, but in fact only 12 families used it initially.

In 2008, ESP, in association with Lestari (Lembaga Studi Tata Mandiri) expanded the capacity of the IPAL with the locals of Darakan Village to optimize its use. A series of activities were then conducted, which led to the construction of pipes leading from homes to the IPAL pipe network. The locals were then taught to understand the connection between the prevention of contamination of ground water by household waste and a healthier way of life.

To maintain the IPAL, the locals formed a group to collectively install the pipes from home to home. The locals used old paint buckets as control buckets; they also created filtration devices to be placed at the end of the pipe leading to the control bucket to prevent any solid waste from coming into the pipelines.

Due to a limited amount of funds, this group took it upon themselves to find support from other sources. A silver craft businessman gave them a loan of 15 million to be paid back in installments. The funds were used to buy and install connector pipes, control buckets, and home pipe connections. Once a month, the IPAL group meets to discuss IPAL-related issues, including setting a monthly Rp 10.000 fee per family to cover operational fees, as well as to pay off the loan from the silver craft businessman.

Budi Yuwono, the Director General of Cipta Karya, who visited Darakan on February 20, 2009, was highly impressed by the hard work demonstrated by Lestari and the people of Darakan, especially when the IPAL group explained that the facilities were already connected to 37 homes. In a direct interview with the locals, Budi expressed his desire to replicate this sanitation program in other regions in Indonesia.

Oni Hartono, ESP YOGYAKARTA & CENTRAL JAVA