Foster Public Awareness Since Early Age

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JAKARTA, KOMPAS – A sanitation system is ideally built in accordance to people’s needs. In cities, a proper sanitation system should be based on conditions of life in dense neighborhoods with limited land populated by people of diverse economic and educational backgrounds.

Private or communal restrooms as well as communal waste water treatment plants (IPAL) are possible answers as to how sanitation facilities should be made available in cities. However, another problem lies in poor public awareness in maintaining hygiene or cleanliness of private and communal restrooms and communal IPALs.

The pervasive mindset of using the phrase “going to the back” to refer to using toilets reflects poor education on hygiene, toilets and sanitation facilities since the early age, both at home and at school. Indonesia’s 2016 Education Basic Data (Dapodik) shows that only 65 percent of elementary schools nationwide have clean water facilities. Around 12 percent of school toilets nationwide do not have separate rooms for boys and girls.

The average toilet-to-female-student ratio in schools is 1:117. For male students, the ratio is 1:122. According to the Education and Culture Ministry, the ideal ratios are 1:50 for female students and 1:60 for male students.

SMP Yakpi I DKI Jaya middle school in West Pademangan, North Jakarta, for instance, only has one boys’ room, two girls’ room and two toilets for around 20 teachers. “We have 414 students,” the school’s principal Resmana said on Thursday (22/11/2018).

Students’ toilets at SMPN 26 Jakarta state junior high school in Bidara Cina, Jatinegara, East Jakarta, are dirty and smelly. Moreover, not all of them have wash basins and soap. SMPN 26 deputy principal Nurbaiti Sitorus said that the school had 20 toilets for around 600 students and dozens of teachers.

With 394 students, SDN Palmerah 09 Pagi state elementary school in West Jakarta only has 14 toilets. As observed on Thursday, only one of the school’s seven toilets for boys has soap -- which was put on the floor, next to a squat toilet.

An example of a proper toilet was found in SMAN 78 Jakarta state high school in Kemanggisan, West Jakarta. “It’s not disgusting as it is clean, the [liquid] soap is regularly refilled and the water is also clean” eleventh grader Azakiah said.

In Bogor, a toilet hygiene campaign for schools was launched in 2009. “Changes will only be apparent in five years and real results will only be available in the five years after that,” Bogor education agency head Fahrudin said.

Many schools have limited lands to build more toilets. Regulations required elementary and middle schools to be at least 3,000 square meters in area. The fact is that many schools are only 1,000 square meters in area. Fahrudin said that all schools had septic tanks for their toilets. “What needs to be improved is hygiene,” he continued.

Education and Culture Ministry’s director general for basic and secondary education, Hamid Muhammad, said regional governments should be serious in monitoring school conditions as authority over schools had been delegated to them.

The ministry’s elementary school guidance director, Khamim, said schools should start focusing on sanitation. In the future, toilets should be placed on the front side of schools to maintain hygiene. Sanitation in school is part of strengthening character education.

Transparency International Indonesia research manager Wawan Heru Suyatmiko said the use of school operational aid (BOS) funds for sanitation facilities rarely involved proper planning. The number of toilets is often not in line with the school’s needs. Program transparency, including in budgeting and evaluation, should be accompanied with a scheme of reward and punishment to resolve this sanitation problem. (RTS/ELN/JOG/DNE/E03/E04)

Editor:

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