Indonesians in Focus: Naning Adiwoso

By Barrie | October 12th, 2007 | No Comments

Naning Adiwoso has devoted significant time to campaigning for clean public toilets in Indonesia, taking snapshots of toilets wherever she goes. Her collection of thousands of pictures includes about 1,000 photos of Indonesian toilets.

“My general impression of Indonesian toilets is that they are far from clean,” said Naning Adiwoso, 58, the founder of the Indonesian Toilet Association (ATI).

She said there were some public toilets in the country that were still smelly, the floors awash with dirty liquid; but there were also others that were remarkably clean.

“I used a toilet in Beringharjo market in Yogyakarta. It was surprisingly clean, considering it was in the middle of a packed wet market. It was not smelly and you could get fresh water from the tap,” she said, adding that in some toilets the only water that could be used for washing was stagnant or had developed an odor from sitting in the bucket for too long.

Naning said that although she was campaigning for Western-type toilets she had nothing against squat toilets: “Using squat toilets is fine. It’s a matter of culture, you should respect it.”

However, she stressed that cleaning squat toilets was more difficult than cleaning sit-down type toilets. She said that waterborne diseases could spread in bathrooms with squat toilets because of the potential for splattering.

Naning said that with good design, squat toilets could be kept dry: “Using a jet spray helps”.

Naning’s interest in toilets started in 1999 when she was invited by a Japanese toilet company to an international conference on toilets in Japan. She did not operate any public toilets but as an interior designer and facility planner she had a good relationships with the suppliers of building materials and household facilities.

“I was hesitant at the start. I had never heard of an international toilet conference before. I was wondered what kind of conference was that?” Naning said.

Her colleague encouraged her to go, saying that although the topic was toilets, something people rarely took seriously, the conference must be important.

Later in the conference she learned why it was so important to have proper sanitation facilities. “I also learned that I was the only Indonesian delegate there,” she said.

Nepal and Vietnam sent delegates from their environment and health government departments, Naning said.

Two years after the conference, she hired a secretary and established ATI.

She used her interior design office in South Jakarta as the headquarters and some of her own savings for ATI’s operation. Later, she also got sponsorship from companies supplying things related to toilets from closets to cleaning equipment.

ATI first approached the health and environment ministries, requesting an audience and sending letters.

“I got half-hearted responses, or no response at all,” said Naning, who studied architecture in the U.S.

Born into a diplomat family, Naning socialized with people who would later become high-ranking government officials. One of them was I Gde Ardika, the culture and tourism minister from 2001 to 2004.

“I changed my strategy. It is easier to campaign for clean toilets from an economic/tourism perspective than from a health/environment one,” she said.

The ministry was quick to grasp Naning’s idea about improving the state of the filthy toilets at international airports and tourist destinations.

After securing a partnership with the Culture and Tourism Ministry, ATI launched the clean toilet campaign in a number of cities in Indonesia. Together with the ministry, ATI set up the “National Movement of Indonesian Public Toilet Standardization”.

For the national campaign on the standard of toilets, she established a set of rules ranging from the meticulous to the practical. The rules include flushing with infra-red devices to avoiding using the hands; closing the lid while flushing; separating the vestibule for getting water for Muslim prayers from the toilet; and having the toilet’s door open outward instead of inward to avoid more disaster in the event of an accident inside the toilet.

The campaign itself was not popular, especially not among public toilet operators because ATI did not have any clout over them.
ATI and its campaigns began to get more attention after it helped organize the toilet award for Indonesian airports this year. Bali’s international airport Ngurah Rai came out on top while the country’s main gate, the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, finished fourth.

“Next year, we will include awards for the cleanest toilets at main tourist destinations like the Borobudur compound,” Naning said.

Her dream is for there to be clean toilets nationwide and for people’s toilet habits to improve. However, she realizes there is a long way to go.

“First, we are targeting airports and tourist destinations. Next, we hope the public will become more aware of the importance of healthy toilets,” she said.

She also realizes that she needs a successor in her campaign. “I want to retire. I didn’t have any time for my dogs or my horse.
They died and I knew only days after.

“I’m looking for a younger person who shares the same passion,” Naning said.

Evi Mariani