Focus on Yuyun Ismawati, winner of the 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize by Laetitia Chanéac-Knight
This year’s Goldman Environmental Prize was awarded to Yuyun Ismawati for her work to implement sustainable waste and sanitation management programs in Bali. Yuyun is a remarkable person with energy and passion, someone with the conviction that she can make a change for her country and her people. “When we have education and skills, we have the power and the duty to make the world a better place” she says. When she looks around and sees how people live, she feels compelled to help the community and enable poor people to live in better conditions.
Originally from Bandung, she lived and worked in Jakarta before settling in Bali. She began her career as an environmental engineer working with consultancy firms to design rural and city water supply systems. Later, in an attempt to get closer to the people worse affected by the lack of safe waste management, Yuyun decided to make a career change. Since 1996, together with her NGO networks, she has facilitated and assisted various initiatives developing safe waste management in poor communities. Thanks to her background and knowledge she has put into practice simple but effective technologies to promote environmental health and economic benefits for local people. In June 2000, Yuyun founded her own NGO, Bali Fokus, to answer the demand for more replicable initiatives in other areas of Indonesia.
The lack of proper waste management is certainly the most critical environmental challenge of the island of Bali. Over the years, the traditional practice of using natural products and later disposing, composting or burning them became impossible. The introduction of plastic on the scale that we know today has made matters worse, particularly when it come to the wide spread habit of burning non-biodegradable rubbish. By law, Yuyun explains, burning is illegal but we all know what happens in practice. The government here, unlike in the more developed countries, only provides the collection of 30 to 40 percent of the rubbish. Mounting waste and burning create toxic chemicals that have detrimental effects on the health of the communities living in their vicinity. This lack of appropriate infrastructure goes hand in hand with the lack of sanitation services. In many areas of the island sewage and waste water remain untreated. Collective water from the poorest neighborhoods is often polluted and becomes a breeding ground for many water-borne diseases such as dengue fever. The picture that stands out from these two environmental problems is clear: the poor of Bali are the ones who suffer the most and they have no recourse to change the situation.
This hard reality pushed Yuyun towards grassroots action and decentralized initiatives that aim to enable these communities to manage and recycle their waste, live in more sanitary conditions and generate an income. In 2003 Bali Fokus and the Rotary Club started a waste management program in the village of Temesi in the Gyaniar province. They trained the local villagers to separate waste into recyclables, compostable and residuals to bring to the dumpsite. The residents were then able to sell some of the recyclable materials and the compost was used for the local agriculture. Currently over 40 residents work at the plant and receive carbon credits to support the project. When asked to give one piece of advice to Bali Advertiser readers as to what we could do to help the situation, Yuyun explained that we cannot just complain about the rubbish situation. We need to help local people by explaining in simple terms the dangers of burning. More importantly, we need to provide a structure for them to dispose of their rubbish. If we just wait for our neighbors to stop burning, it will not happen but if, along with the banjar or on even our own, we organize containers and rubbish collection, it probably will.
Yuyun believes in women and she considers them as her partners in many low-income communities. Bali Fokus taught more than 500 women simple techniques to reduce household waste and their waste has now reduced by 50 percent. Women have also learned to produce handicrafts that they can sell. These ladies are now collecting, cleaning and sewing recyclable bags made of plastic packages. This project was initiated in the Philippines and the bags and the accessories they make have now become highly fashionable beyond national borders!
Sanitation has improved in these communities too thanks to the training provided by Bali Fokus. It is not always known that tofu making produces toxic chemicals heavily polluting the rivers. Now these chemicals can be separated and used to replace gas for cooking. In one village, the women involved in this initiative have organized themselves in a modest but fully functioning production line where each household cooks and sells one dish. People from outside this community now come and buy from them. This type of practice makes people aware that looking after their immediate environment brings improvement to their day to day life, provides income and directly empowers them. Yuyun’s philosophy is simple, logical and powerful: “When public services fail to serve all populations equally, if people get more trust and empowerment, most of the problems can be solved closer to the source in a more sustainable way with less cost than the conventional and centralized approach.”
Yuyun later became involved in the development of SANIMAS, which was to bring sanitation to communities. It has reached hundreds of villages across Indonesia and its scope and scale increases every year. This project is active in urban areas and Yuyun, Bali Fokus and other NGOs work with the communities to provide the best solutions for their particular problems. For that, they work hand in hand with the government who provides the infrastructures. It is team work between the government, the participation of the communities and contributions from local residents and outside parties that make such programs successful and sustainable.
Her dedication, clear mindedness and perfectionism are key to her success. She admits to be “complicated” and not easily satisfied with fast and shallow solutions. She knows that her collaborators can find her hard and demanding at times but she does not see any other way than being hard working, consistent and transparent with her decisions. She recognizes that it has not always been easy to achieve her goals here in Bali as a divorced mum coming from Java but her confidence and strength have made her a respected actor of change on the island. The other side of her personality is a loving and dedicated mum, a smiley person who finds time for people and above all, someone with empathy and great sensitivity to the world and people around her.
Last year Yuyun worked in collaboration with national agencies and the first ever bill on waste management was born. Policies and larger scale bills are vital to back grassroots initiatives. She admits that, although most of her work and efforts are geared towards waste and sanitation management at small scale community level, the sum of her work and convictions are logically related to climate change issues. She is knowledgeable about the topic, sees it as the ultimate threat to our planet but remains confident that the world’s biggest powers are now aware and becoming more responsible about it. The next summit in Copenhagen is going to be the witness of new commitments, promises of changes and alliances that will justify and support community actions like hers around the world. She feels that, by achieving large improvements at a small scale level, it shows that the whole world is capable of reversing their malpractices and finding sustainable solutions. “If we, a poor country with very few resources can do it, why can’t the richer countries do it too?” she asks.
Her determined personality and her consistent work in improving the environment of local communities and the country at large has been recognized and celebrated in San Francisco this year when Yuyun was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environment Prize. Back in 1990, Richard Goldman, a civic leader and philanthropist with his late wife Rhoda decided to create the Goldman Environmental Prize since the Nobel Prize did not celebrate exceptional actions in the field of the environment. A firm believer that the environment was going to be the most important human challenge of the years to come, he wanted to honor grassroots environmentalists from the six inhabited continental regions of the world: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The prize has gained a lot of respect over the last 20 years and for an environmentalist like Yuyun, she could not dream of a better recognition. Such a prize ensures that her issues, battles and challenges are known in Indonesia and around the world. When I met Yuyun, she was balancing her time between travels, meetings, invitations and a sudden request to meet the Vice President of Indonesia. She is going to have a hard time to decide where the future lies for her as she has had many appealing offers since the award. Whatever decision she makes, whether it is to further her academic knowledge, lead wider scale actions on the ground or be involved in the larger policy making process, it will no doubt be for the best of her country and of the planet. Keep your eyes on her because she has the clout of someone who could go far!
