Challenges of Sludge Management in Developing Countries towards Sustainable Environment with Particular Reference to Indonesian Condition

Most of the developing countries particularly Indonesia will be facing the dilemmatic problems of sludge pressure in next decades due to increasing the legal and illegal loggings as well as the land and water demands resulting from the population growth, improved standard of people living and urbanization as well as economic and industrial developments. Consequence, there will be facing also the challenges of sludge management due to increasing the quantity and extend of sludge affected living environment coming from several potential sources such as the activated sludge, fecal sludge and solid waste as well as the erosion and sedimentation, and it must be also accompanying the request of specific procedure, method and technology for handling each of their problems. The government of Republic Indonesia has been enacted the strategy and policy as well as the programme and activity related to sludge management, such as the Water Resources Law No. 7/2004 and the National Movement for Forest and Land Rehabilitation as well as the National Movement for Water Resources Management Partnership. The inter-ministerial coordination efforts related to realize the programmes of reducing erosion and sedimentation, spatial planning arrangement, water quality management and pollution control as well as the programme for handling the water resources conservation have been initiated for 4 river basins in West Java i.e., the Ciliwung, Citarum, Cimanuk and Citanduy river basins. Despite, not cover for entire the city, the several centralized domestic wastewater treatment plant such as in Medan, Jakarta, Bandung, Cirebon, Yogyakarta and Surabaya as well as the industrial wastewater treatment plant cross the country have been also promoted in Indonesia. Role sharing of each institution related to sludge management at the local and central government levels, NGO’s and public participation as well as the contribution of private sector and sharing among the related sectors must be clearly defined. Some local autonomous request such as the implementation of Zero ∆Q, Zero ∆E and Zero ∆P policies as well as solid waste, fecal sludge and activated sludge managements must be taking over by the municipal or district governments. The river basin upstream-downstream interaction mechanism by involving the stakeholder participation gives a perspective programme for handling the erosion and sedimentation problems and could be promoted in the developing countries for the years to come. And the utilization of sludge for fertilizer and other purposes needs to be scrutinized the right procedure and technology both for monitoring the amount of mineral containing the sludge and the adaptation of destined land use for sludge dumping. Keyword: sludge management, environmental sustainability, developing country