Manila, January 27-29, 2010

Whereas, eight hundred million people in East Asia is still lack access to improved sanitation facilities, resulting in the poor health and quality of life of men, women and children and imposing heavy economic burden to countres in the region;

whereas the latest statistics for the region  indicate that the Millenium  Development Goals (MDG) target for sanitation might be missed by 6 percent points if the development trend of the past years persists to 2015.

Completed Declaration Docs

Around 70 million Indonesian people have no access to sanitation facilities, an official confirmed.
Budi Yuwono Prawirosudiorjo, director general of Cipta Karya public works office at the Public Works Ministry, explained the number came from the latest survey carried out by the Statistic Bureau Agency. "In reality, the number of people would be more than 70 million." Sanitation facilities include clean water sources, toilets, domestic and industrial waste-processing plants and others. Regarding tap water, the government could only provide drinking water supplies to 47 percent of households in urban areas and 11 percent of households in rural sites.

Most Jakartans seem to live their lives unaware that the maximum punishment for littering, as stipulated in the public order bylaw, is 60 days imprisonment and a Rp 2 million (US$210) fine. It is no wonder, then, that sanitation will likely be an ever-lasting problem for the capital city.
The existing law is not effective and cannot be policed Although garbage bins are available in some public areas, most people still throw their rubbish anywhere.

With the onset of the rainy season the city administration is busy picking the city clean of trash. Jakartans are used to see excavators mobilized in rivers or dams, collecting tons of rubbish. Dozens of people are hired to clean drainage ditches choked with waste. Dozens of trucks stand by in areas frequented by flooding to remove garbage from overflowing rivers.

Hotel Cemara, 27 Januari 2010

Decentralization has been challenging national stakeholders to think about how to work differently in support of local water and sanitation sector development.  Now, local governments are in the driver’s seat and national agencies need to be able to guide them much like a driver needs a map, passable roads and bridges and traffic lights. If national government agencies are to be effective in this new role, now, more than ever, it will need to strengthen its monitoring and evaluation functions.

 How do you build a monitoring system for this kind of environment? 

The national working group of Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation (WSES) held a stakeholders meeting, in Hotel Cemara Jakarta, on 27 January 2010 to discuss this fundamental question.