Designing a "neighborhood deal" for urban sewers : a case study of Semarang, Indonesia

The exclusion of neighborhood organizations and households from active participation in the planning process lies at the heart of the current sanitation planning crisis in many cities in developing countries. This paper describes a demand-driven planning approach for urban sewerage, in which neighborhood organizations and households are involved in an active partnership with government planners and other technical staff. We argue that planners must reorient their thinking from city-level master planning toward the neighborhood. This change in focus requires that government officials and planners study household and neighborhood demand for improved water and sanitation services in order to design a deal that municipal and higher- level governments can afford, that is technically feasible, that is attractive to households, and that has public health and environmental benefits. A case study of the sanitation situation in Semarang, Indonesia, illustrates how an innovative set of participatory tools can be used to assess household and neighborhood demand. [authors abstract]