Bali secures $65 million for sewerage project

Bali secures $65 million for sewerage project

The Denpasar Sewerage Development Project (DSDP) task force has secured US$65 million (Rp 698.9 billion) in soft loans from the Japanese government and has begun planning phase two of the DSDP, an official says.

I Wayan Budiarsa, head of the DSDP task force, said the project would begin sometime in mid-2009, or in the fourth quarter at the latest.

"We have confirmed that we will get the funds so now we can concentrate on working on the second phase of the DSDP," he told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The DSDP will see the construction of massive sewerage treatment infrastructure to cover Bali's capital of Denpasar and its tourist-heavy southern areas including Kuta and Seminyak by 2014.

The DSDP is a three-phase project, the first of which officially ended with the inauguration of Indonesia's largest sewerage processing unit in the Suwung sub-district in June 2008.

The Suwung unit can process up to 51,000 cubic meters of waste per day, but currently works at 60 percent capacity.

Costing a total Rp 600 billion (then US$64.5 million), the first phase was funded by the Central Government, the Bali provincial Administration, the Denpasar City Administration and loans from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JIBC).

The JBIC will fully fund the second phase of the project, which will expand the treatment facility to cover eastern Denpasar all the way to the Sanur area and will further including several areas in Central and Northern Denpasar, Budiarsa said.

He added that the 130 kilometers of piping built during the first phase covered 9,000 homes and that the next phase would increase the number of pipe-home-connections by 8,000.

Meanwhile, the DSDP task force, the Denpasar Municipal Legislative Council, the Badung Legislative Council and the Bali Provincial Legislative Council have been deliberating a bylaw that will set applicable tariffs for sewerage treatment.

Budiarsa said there were currently three tariff categories: household, social and commercial.

Tariffs for homes will depend on the proximity of the house to the main road where the main piping lies. Homes located closer to main roads will be charged higher fees.

The social category will include places of worships, city centers, cooperative stores and other public buildings.

The commercial category will include hotels, restaurants and private companies and the larger the business, the higher the tariff.

Ida Bagus Gede Udiyana, Head of the Bali provincial legislative council's Commission B overseeing development, said the tariff bylaw would be as "fair as possible".

"The tariffs are intended to cover the operational fees, which have been estimated to be as high as Rp 5 billion per year. It's not for profit," he said.

The bylaws are expected to go into effect in February.

Wasti Atmodjo , The Jakarta Post , Denpasar | Tue, 01/06/2009 11:11 AM | Bali