For Cikapundung\'s Smile

Name: For Cikapundung\'s Smile
Uploaded: 2020-11-10T04:50:32Z
Duration: 20 min 32 s
Description: Cece Royadi (35) was one of the perpetrators. However, since 2011, he has tried to keep Cikapundung free from cow dung.

Cece Royadi (35) was one of the perpetrators. However, since 2011, he has tried to keep Cikapundung free from cow dung.

Tatang Mulyana Sinaga

· 6 minutes read

A gloomy portrait of the Cikapundung River can be seen from its upstream area in Batuloceng village, Lembang, West Bandung. The 28-kilometer river has long been polluted with cow dung. Cece Royadi (35) was one of the perpetrators. However, since 2011, he has tried to keep Cikapundung free from cow dung.

On Friday (6/11/2020), Cece showed real evidence that liquid cow waste could be made cleaner. Clear water appeared to be pouring out of the end of the pipe in the cattle farming sewage treatment plant that he manages. There was no smell of cow dung.

Cece smiled. He looked proud of the results of his hard work. However, the expression on his face changed when he saw the greenish water flowing from upstream. "Not all residents on the outskirts of Cikapundung process livestock waste. There are still those who dump cow dung directly into the river," he said.

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Cece was born in Batuloceng. In his childhood, the Cikapundung was his playground because the water was clear. Things have changed since the 1990s. There are more and more dairy cattle. However, the waste treatment is not adequate. Cow manure is dumped directly into the Cikapundung, a tributary of the Citarum River.

Cece admitted that he had contributed to polluting the Cikapundung during 2003-2010. He built a cow shed near the river. This way, he simply had to dig a ditch to drain the cow dung into the Cikapundung.

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His bad habits changed at the end of 2010. At that time, Rahim Asyik Budhi Santoso (53), an environmental activist in the Cikapundung area, caught him throwing cow dung into the river. He told Cece not to do it again. The reason is that the river water is used by the Tirtawening Regional Water Company as a source of clean water for the residents of Bandung City.

"I feel very guilty. To pay for this sin, I was moved to protect the Cikapundung by processing livestock waste to reduce river pollution," he said.

Together with other residents, Cece then formed the Batuloceng Livestock Farmer Group in 2011. They used Rahim\'s land to build a wastewater treatment plant (IPAL).

Three pools were built to accommodate cow waste from the communal pens. In each pool are installed dozens of paralon pipes with small holes at several points. Their function is to separate solid and liquid waste.

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After two or three days, the solid cow dung is removed and dried. Then, it is fermented for one or two weeks to be processed into compost.

Liquid waste is treated differently. The waste is channeled through a 200-meter-long pipe into a 6-square-meter tub. The tub on the Cikapundung border contains rocks that filter liquid waste before being discharged into the river. "The results are not yet complete. Sometimes the water is a little greenish. That\'s why it must be checked and cleaned frequently,” he said.

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Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Cece and his associates processed about 2 tons of cow dung per day. The livestock waste comes from around 300 cows belonging to approximately 50 breeders in community units (RW) 9 and 10 in Suntenjaya village. A total of 16 of the cows belong to Cece. "We are not able to instantly clean the Cikapundung. However, with the IPAL, at least the level of pollution is reduced,” he said.

Ecology and economics

Processing cow waste does not only have an ecological impact, but also an economic one. Cow manure is processed into compost and then sold. From 20 tons of cow dung, 600 kilograms of compost can be produced. The buyers are local vegetable farmers and fruit farmers around Lembang.

Through this waste treatment, the Batuloceng Livestock Farmers Group can employ six local residents. They share tasks, ranging from taking cattle dung from the breeders, drying solid waste, carrying out the fermentation process, to checking the smoothness of the IPAL process.

They use a profit-sharing system from selling fertilizer. However, one of the obstacles is that, with the price of Rp 15,000 (US$1.05) per sack, it is still difficult to compete in the market. This is because there is compost made from chicken manure sold for Rp 8,000 to Rp 9,000 per sack. "It is impossible for us to sell compost below Rp 10,000 per sack. This is because the production cost alone is Rp 14,000 per sack," he said.

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Cece realizes that the main goal of treating waste is not seeking economic benefits but preserving the environment. However, it costs money to buy fermentation materials and hire workers for the sewage treatment process.

Since the pandemic began in March, the demand for cow waste compost has decreased by 50 percent. As a result, only about 1.2 tons of cow dung are processed every day. Meanwhile, the remaining 800 kilograms are at risk of being thrown into the river again.

If you continue to process 2 tons of cow waste per day, the warehouse will not be able to accommodate it. Currently, about 100 bags of fertilizer are piled up because they have not yet been sold.