Monitoring visit to Bima is part of monitoring and evaluation activities to ensure progress in the replication of smart practice clean water management through a village-owned enterprise. With Regional Secretary and related regional work units (SKPDs), the discussion focused on continued support to replication of BUMDes for clean water management in Desa Sari from local apparatus and community at local level and from Bappenas at national level.
The Regional Secretary shared the challenges in implementing subscription based water usage as local communities are not used to paying for basic services. He reiterated the strong commitment of local work units to improve distribution of clean water, including intention to ‘replicate’ what Sari is doing to 10-15 other villages facing difficulties in providing access to clean water. He also requested continued support from Bappenas on water issues, with commitment to allocate regional budget and find other funding sources at local level.
Bappenas reiterated that Bima has focused its energy on provision of clean water, which is very much in line with the national development priorities of basic services. Additionally, since water and sanitation are related to development achievements in health, Bappenas complemented the effort of Bima in establishing a BUMDes for better clean water management to ensure fair public access to clean water in a region already known as vulnerable to draught and low quantity of clean/drinking water. Bappenas also complement Bima’s ability to allocate budget for this initiative as the government is experiencing across the board budget cut (APP, 1 Trillion).
The KC team also met with the Head of Sari Village, Head of Subdistrict of Sape, and local communities (water subscribers and BUMDes Management Team). Head of Sari Village shared his experiences in replicating the smart practice of establishing a village-owned enterprise (BUMDes) to facilitate more effective and equitable clean water distribution and maintenance of water source. Currently, there is plan for 250 household connections with 890 connections by 2017. Village Fund has been used to purchase water meters (IDR 54 million) in 2015, and for 2016, IDR 74 million will be allocated for maintenance and building facilities. The SOP for BUMDes is within legal and operational framework. Head of Sari Village also share his plan to establish a water company to ensure greater income to support expansion of access to clean water in Bima.
Bappenas complemented Sari for its forward thinking and openness to implement replication activities and for its commitment to allocate regional budget. Bappenas shared the importance of access to clean water to reaching the goals of other national development priorities, such as health, poverty reduction, etc. Bappenas shared the module and replication guidelines from Lendang Nangka for reference in implementing replication activities.
