City without slums program in Merauke begins

The city without slums program (Program Kota Tanpa Kumuh – Kotaku) is one of a number of strategic efforts by the Directorate General of Human Settlements of the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing to accelerate the handling of slums in Indonesia and support the “100-0-100 Movement,” which is 100 percent universal access to drinking water, 0 percent of slums, and 100 percent access to proper sanitation.

The direction of the development policy of the Director General of Human Settlements is to build a system, facilitate local government, and facilitate the community (community based).

The city without slums program will deal with slums by building collaboration platforms through increasing the role of local government and community participation and has been running since 2015. This is based on a Slum Decree (SK) established by the regional heads of each district / city.

In the Merauke Regency, Papua the Kotaku program has just been running this year, precisely in Karang Indah Village, Merauke District, based on the appointment of a place in the Merauke Regent’s Decree. In addition to Karang Indah, also Samkai, Kelapa Lima and Gudang Arang Sub-districts are areas designated as slums.

“Because of the Covid-19 Pandemic, part of the funds were cut off so this year we only manage 1 billion funds for one kelurahan namely Karang Indah Kelurahan,” said the Technical Facilitator for the Kotaku 2020 Team, Putra Arya during a training session held at the Karang Indah Kelurahan Office, Tuesday (7/21).

Beginning with the socialization of the introduction of the Kotaku program to the local village community for two days and will continue with physical activities in the field that are done directly by the community.

There are five aspects that are the focus of development, namely roads, drainage, waste, clean water and sanitation. The activities in the three slum locations that were targeted by the Kotaku program in Karang Indah were RT.1, RW.1, RT.2, RW.2 and RT.7, RW.2.

All activities carried out by the community through community self-help groups formed directly by the community at the location of the activity.

“By absorbing direct workforce at the location of the activity so that the main concept of the Kotaku program is community empowerment can be achieved. The target of its implementation will be completed in December 2020. Furthermore, this kelurahan will become a pilot village,” said Putra Arya.

He added, the presence of the Kotaku program had a positive impact with significant progress in reducing slum areas. For example in the Jayapura area, for example, since 2015 the total slum area has reached 27 hectares. After the Kotaku program, it dropped dramatically to just two hectares.

“This is thanks to the cooperation between the community and the local Regional Government in managing the funds given to turn slums into good areas,” concluded Putra.

Source: Merauke.go.id