Agus Gunarto

Agus Gunarto has created a wastewater management system that will significantly improve the health of people living in crowded urban areas. He has developed a technical design and worked out strategies for the construction and operation of simple, community financed and managed, mini-sewerage treatment plants.

Agus Gunarto has created and implemented a very practical idea: that appropriate waste water treatment can be based on household sewerage units that are financed, constructed, and managed by the same communities that benefit from the systems. In Indonesia, this is a new way of thinking about sewage management. Unlike large public projects, Agus's smaller scale treatment plants are affordable by the poor people whom they service. Before the creation of these plants, these communities often simply used open drains, shallow septic tanks, and rivers for the disposal of contaminated water. These practices contributed to high rates of disease.The treatment plants benefit the communities in many ways. In addition to clean water, they also provide fertilizer for local farmers and catfish that can be sold by the community to help offset the maintenance costs of the plant. After developing a very successful pilot project in Malang, East Java, Agus is now attempting to spread his small-scale wastewater treatment plants to other areas of Indonesia.

Water pollution remains a major cause of serious health problems, such as outbreaks of diarrhea and cholera. Traditionally, rivers have been an important focus of Indonesian communities: not only are they the venue of commerce and communication upon which towns and cities have developed, but they have also always served as the place where people carry out all their basic human sanitation needs. Washing clothes and dishes, bathing, and toileting are all done in the open-air, communal atmosphere of the river. In the past, with smaller population numbers and widespread villages, this might not have created a problem, but these practices have now been transported to the very densely populated urban centers of Java. The homes of people living in the crowded slums of these urban centers are often makeshift shanties and simple houses with no proper washing or toilet facilities, and drains and rivers still serve people's needs. Agus, in his own neighborhood in Malang, would watch people lining up daily to use the Brantas river for these various purposes, despite its high pollution levels.

Existing sewerage facilities in towns and cities have their own problems as well. In crowded areas there can be too many septic tanks, so that people pollute each other's wells. Many city authorities have septic tank cleaning services, but these tank-trucks often discharge the raw waste into rivers, as Agus himself noted was the case in Malang. City planners have tried to deal with the problem of the lack of sewage facilities by following the familiar paradigm of using modern technology and building huge main trunks and treatment plants. However, many households do not benefit from systems supposedly designed for them. They have either never been made aware of the facilities or have refused to connect to the networks because they do not understand the mechanisms or are expected to finance the expensive connections themselves. High costs and engineering constraints also make large-scale projects nonviable in Indonesia's crowded cities, because existing infrastructures actually have to be torn down before these new facilities can be constructed. The result is that projects that absorbed millions of dollars are often severely underused or totally wasted, so there is a real need for new methods of wastewater management.

Agus had been thinking of ways to improve the environment of his community for four years before he was able to develop a plan that he felt confident would work. In 1985 he began to build a small-scale sewerage system for his own neighborhood because he was so concerned about the unclean environment. He started by convincing his closest neighbors to join him in a trial project to clean up their area. Only ten families supported his idea at first, as the rest waited to see the outcome, but 66 families eventually connected to the system.

A series of pipes connects the mini-sewerage systems to a network of houses. The system cleans the waste water through a small anaerobic septic tank and a series of four small aerobic holding tanks (two square meters each), which progressively filter the water as it flows from tank to tank. Once the water reaches the final stage, it is clean enough to be discharged into waterways or used for other purposes such as watering gardens. A plant of four tanks takes up only a small area of land: a plant for 200 households needs an area of only about four by six meters. Agus used the edge of the community cemetery land for his first plant and has since been able to convince someone in every location to donate land officially (that is, deed the land, by law) to the community, in return for becoming the operator of the facility. There is a connection fee of Rupiah (Rp) 70,000 (US $5 in July, 1998) per household for pipes, sanitation bowl and installation, and a monthly operation and maintenance charge of Rp 750 (US $.30) of which 30 percent is for maintenance, 60 percent for the operator, and 10 percent for the fee collector. These are affordable sums, and the families now have latrines in their homes, clean well water, and a community environment that is radically changed for the better. Nothing is wasted in the process: sediment is sold as fertilizer; water hyacinths, which are used to reduce odor in the first two tanks, are dried and chopped up and mixed with corn as chicken feed since they make egg shells stronger; and finally, the relatively clean water in the last tank is used to breed catfish, which creates an extra source of income.

Agus developed strategies to handle community resistance and to achieve full participation at all levels of decision making, implementation, and ownership. This is critical to the success of the concept, since communities are usually ignored in the big city projects. The community in Agus's pilot project was a very poor one, where most inhabitants earned their living by breaking up river rocks for the construction industry. Agus had to overcome arguments that the plant was too expensive for them, so he asked them to pay over a five-year period and got them to use the arisans (popular community savings "clubs") to help with payments. He also made a point of involving women in the project since they are the household managers and feel the need for this facility most keenly.

Agus's project has now been duplicated in ten other sites in Malang, on the invitation of the wife of the mayor. There are about 1,000 families now connected to these small, community-owned sewerage treatment plants. He has used this opportunity train a supervisor and a trainer to work alongside him, and he insists that three to four people in each site take part in the entire construction process so that they understand every technical aspect of it. The city's sanitation department has taken up his idea, and its head has become a trainer and coordinator in the implementation of the system at the new sites. Agus adds details and modifies the design as he goes along and as people make suggestions. Agus created his own visual aid cards to introduce the concept to the new communities and also arranged visits to his pilot site.

The effects on locations that have undertaken Agus' project are dramatic. In one area, it has been the catalyst for action to improve the whole area: pathways are paved (over the sewerage pipes), rubbish collection is organized, and the general cleanliness of the area is significantly improved. There is pride in the area, and they have a big sign at the entrance saying, "you are entering an integrated sanitation area." This is all the direct result of the sewerage project. Another area benefited more than expected, when a university was built nearby and many people in the community were able to earn extra income by renting out rooms to students, something they could not have done without clean bathroom facilities. Another Ashoka Fellow, Dodo Juliman, has already contacted Agus to see about using the project in West Java.

Agus has many ideas for the future and interest in his system is growing. He foresees that city septic tank cleaning trucks could pay to use his plants instead of dumping waste in rivers. He is also working to develop a mechanical device to dig the sludge from the open tanks so that people do not have to do this by hand. He has recently been invited by the Ministry of Youth to show his ideas in other cities and towns in East Java. Agus has recently gained national recognition for his work, and he is planning to work with the communities in Java and beyond who express interest in implementing the system. He believes that with the eleven sites in Malang, pilot projects in other cities and interest shown by the World Bank and the United Nations Development Project (UNDP), the idea will spread significantly in the next three to five years.

Agus is the only child of schoolteacher parents, although he grew up with three cousins living with his family as well. He lived in a small town near Malang and went to school there. Agus was a good student, but was unable to afford the cost of college. He never lost his love of learning, though, and continued to read avidly on his own. He even acquired his engineering knowledge for the wastewater management system by teaching himself.

Agus married very young and moved into a simple rented house in the urban fringe area of town, which has since become his project area. In 1986 he was elected village chief and has been reelected every year since. Despite his position in the community, he faced many problems convincing people to cooperate with his ideas; it was only his absolute conviction that it was needed that kept him at it. Agus never received any compensation for the work he did in Malang, although the mayor's wife arranged for him to be given a motor bike in order to supervise his projects. He now eagerly and happily takes every opportunity to introduce the project to other locations.

The wastewater management project is taking off quickly, and Agus is totally absorbed in the challenge. He is developing projects with communities all over East Java even though he still has to cover all of his own travel expenses. Agus had been earning a living by driving a bemo (a small public transport vehicle) in the mornings, and he also had been getting a small stipend from the city council for overseeing street sweepers. He also has a great deal of community and family support: once he had no money to pay his rent, and the community all contributed for him. Agus's wife, in the meantime, works as a small trader to help with the needs of their three children, who are all in high school. Agus was given a Presidential award in 1997 in recognition of his work.