Ablution solution for river pollution

People have seen the Brantas River bubbling and purple as it flows into the sea at Surabaya, East Java.

Children play near an open drain into the river Brantas

    The pollution of the river is the result of tonnes of raw effluent, agricultural chemicals and septic tank seepage pouring into the Brantas each day. Each day, too, people bathe and do their washing in the river.
    It is the vital waterway of the region, containing most of East Java’s water reservoir and supporting Indonesia’s most urbanised area of population.
    There is a local saying: “If you want to damage East Java, damage the Brantas River.”
    Local engineer and waste-water researcher Suriptono knows about damage to the Brantas and is working to fix it. He’s not alone. It is taking the combined efforts of Murdoch’s Institute for Science and Technology Policy (ISTP), Merdeka University in Java, two Perth firms that make modern septic systems and the financial support of the Australian and Indonesian governments.
    Their plan is to reduce the amount of sewage in the river by installing small-scale sewerage systems in the region.
    Their starting point has been a densely-populated, urban squatter neighbourhood called Embong Brantas on the riverbank outskirts of the city of Malang. There the people have no toilets at all, they use the river.
    ISTP Director Professor Peter Newman told a recent conference that the project was a model of how to introduce effective technology into a community.
    He said it needed a different approach from the conventional large-scale pipe network systems of sewerage that Europeans were used to installing. The geographical location and the sheer cost prohibited such works, he said. Instead it needed small-scale works and an approach that the locals controlled.
    To do this Suriptono carried out technical research and extensive consultation with the people and the political leaders at various formal and informal levels.
    The result is the construction of two ablution blocks. One is connected to WA-made sewage treatment tanks manufactured by Biomax Pty Ltd that use an aeration method. The waste water from that process is used on a newly-made garden before draining into the river. Another ablution block is being constructed and will be connected to another WA-made sand filter manufactured by Ecomax Pty Ltd. The waste water from this process is also to be used for irrigation before draining into the river.
    Professor Newman said the Embong Brantas project was strategic - “If you can do it there, you can do it anywhere.”
    The project was supported by a grant from AUSAID and coordinated by Associate Professor Goen Ho, Director of the Institute for Environmental Science at Murdoch University, and Christine Harris in Malang. From her experience and observation, Ms Harris hopes to understand how Australian technology should be transferred to a situation like Embong Brantas.

The densely populated squatter neighbourhood of Embong Brantas, outside the city of Malang, East Java.

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