Surabaya Airport Wipes The Floor

Surabaya's Juanda Airport toilets remain the cleanest in Indonesia, and don't give people the $#;+s.

That is the conclusion of a specially-selected Ministry of Culture and Tourism jury, who recently gave the Sapta Pesona Clean Public Toilet Award to Juanda Airport for the second time.

In one of the stranger cases of Indonesian nepotism, the jury was chaired by Triesna Wacik, wife of Indonesia's Tourism Minister, Jero Wacik. When interviewed about this, Mr Wacik doesn't mind his wife being associated with bathrooms, even referring to her as "Miss Toilet".

"It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it"
Indonesia's Clean Toilet Jury, chaired by Triesna Wacik (centre, in white)

The Cleanest Airport Toilet Award was presented in a star-studded tourism awards ceremony at Hotel Nikko on 27 September, coinciding with World Tourism Day. (The same jury also presented the inaugural Cleanest Zoo Toilet Award to Taman Safari Park, Bali; it is not confirmed whether the jury assessed the toilets for humans or animals.)

Miss Toilet and Mr Wacik present the award to Juanda Airport Management

As well as being the first multiple winner of the award, Juanda Airport's toilets also became the first to earn a 4-star rating, receiving extra points for its hands-free flushers, as well as special facilites for children and the disabled.

Jakarta's much-maligned and overloaded Soekarno-Hatta Airport retained its 3-star rating to finish second, while Denpasar/Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport finished third, earning a 3-star rating for the first time. The 3-star rating means that toilet paper and running water are available at all times, and the toilet areas are generally clean.

The fact that Ngurah Rai Airport won the inaugural award in 2007 with two-star toilets shows a general improvement in airport toilet standards and hygiene. It also suggests a reduced likelihood of patrons getting an airport terminal disease.

The Director-General of Tourism Development, Firmansyah, was recently quoted as saying:

Ever since the first time we held the Sapta Pesona Clean Public Toilet Award in 2007, airports across the country have been improving their toilet facilities every year and we have made tourists feel more comfortable.

Here are the airports ranked from 1-20 with their 2009 position in brackets:

1. Juanda Airport, Surabaya **** (1)
2. Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Jakarta ***(2)
3. Ngurah Rai Airport, Denpasar *** (4) 1
4. Adi Sumarmo Airport, Solo (5) 1
5. Adi Sutjipto Airport, Yogyakarta (6) 1
6. Minangkabau Airport, Padang (7) 1
7. Sam Ratulani Airport, Manado (11) 4
8. Sepinggan Airport, Balikpapan (17) 9
9. Mahmud Badaruddin II, Palembang (8) 1
10. Sultan Hasanuddin Airport, Makassar (9) 1
11. Husein Sastranegara Airport, Bandung (3) 8
12. Selaparang Airport, Lombok (10) 2 - now closed
13. Halim Perdanakusuma Airport, Jakarta (-)
14. Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport, Banda Aceh (-)
15. Achmad Yani Airport, Semarang (14) 1
16. Hang Nadim Airport, Batam (13) 3
17. Polonia Airport, Medan (16) 1
18. Supadio Airport, Pontianak (10) 8
19. Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport, Pekanbaru (12) 7
20. El Tari Airport, Kupang (15) 5

On a recent visit to Surabaya's Juanda Airport, the author's foreign friends did indeed notice the superior quality of the toilets compared to others they had recently experienced in Denpasar, Makassar and Yogyakarta. Their only suggestion was to replace toilet paper with larger/stronger paper toweling for hand drying.

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However, other statistics suggest that more generally Indonesia still has some work to do.

It recently placed 12th out of 18 Asian countries for its toilet facilities in a survey by the World Toilet Organisation. Indonesia was ranked above Vietnam, but below neighbours Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand.

Old habits die hard

Indonesia also leads the world in another less pleasant fact: Indonesia ranks third for public/open defecation, behind China and India. According to another report, as much as 30% of the population still doesn't use toilet facilities (whether by choice or necessity), using drains, rivers, etc, instead. It is said to cost the Indonesian economy Rp56 trillion - over $US6 billion - per year in lost productivity due to preventable illnesses in workers. Open defecation is apparently a "common sight" even in the province of East Java, location of the airport with the cleanest airport toilets: Surabaya.

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