The administration in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, is touting its waste management facility as being the best on the island, and perhaps even in Indonesia.

"We can make this facility a success because of the synergy between the city administration and the community," Ali Munsjir Halim, head of the municipal sanitation office, told The Jakarta Post recently.

"Cleaning up the environment starts at the most basic level, households, then neighborhood groups, villages, subdistricts and districts."

The facility, TPA Manggar, was built in 2000 but only began operating in 2002. It utilizes a landfill system.

Spread out over 25.1 hectares of land, it is divided into separate zones. The first zone, some 2.6 hectares, is expected to be completely full after nine years of operation. The second zone, measuring 3.3 hectares, is now being prepared.

The facility currently processes between 280 and 300 tons of waste daily, Ali said.

He said the waste management process began with households disposing of their garbage in containers provided by the municipality for every neighborhood group.

The garbage is then transported by truck to temporary landfills before being taken to TPA Manggar.

Once there, some 100 garbage pickers separate organic from inorganic waste.

The organic waste is then layered into the ground by excavators between alternating layers of soil. Methane traps are planted in the layers to make the process environmentally friendly, Ali said.

"These layers turn into a rich compost," he added.

He said an Australian company had recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the city administration to buy the compost after five years of processing.

Geo-membrane layers are also implanted to prevent alkalis formed during the decomposition process from entering the groundwater. They are instead channeled away in pipes to processing pools.

The facility boasts three alkali-processing pools made of concrete, each with a control well whose water is tested every three months for heavy metal content. Another pool will be built later this year to filter heavy metals.

"To date, all our water quality checks have met with required quality standards," Ali said.

The city administration has allocated Rp 4 billion (US$440,000) in its 2008 budget for the maintenance, running costs and development of the facility.

Ali said toxic and dangerous waste was managed at a separate site by a private company.

Visitors to TPA Manggar are often caught off guard by the scenic surroundings and rustic wooden bridges over the neatly arranged alkali-processing pools.

Vegetables are grown on open fields next to the pools, and there is a conspicuous absence of bad odors.

"It feels more like a recreation area than a landfill site," one visitor remarked.

The Dayak people have demanded the central government give equal opportunity to indigenous and non-indigenous candidates in the appointment of officials to temporarily lead East Kalimantan province.

Yulianus Henock, head of the United Dayak Solidarity Organization, said Monday the demand was made because the government had in the past ignored such requests by the indigenous people.

Decisions about the administration of the province are usually made by the central government without any consultation with local people, Henock said by phone from Samarinda.

He said the Dayak often felt as if they were sidelined by the central government.

Henock made the remarks Monday in response to the government's plan to appoint a non-indigenous person to replace Yurnalis Ngayoh as acting governor of East Kalimantan.

The acting governor will work for three months until the appointment of a new governor through the gubernatorial election, which enters the second round on Sept. 5.

Ngayoh's term as acting governor of East Kalimantan expired on June 25. Ngayoh was temporarily replaced by provincial administration secretary Syaiful Teteng, who will assume the post for several days.

"If there are still many other local people who could potentially lead the province, why should the central government appoint an outsider?" Henock said. "Such an act belittles local people."

"That's why we will stage a rally at the legislative council and the governor's office in Samarinda on Tuesday," Henock said, adding local people also planned to send a group of representatives to file a protest with Home Minister Mardiyanto in Jakarta on the same day.

A group of indigenous Banjar people and representatives of youth organizations will also take part in the rally.

Henock said there was no need for officials from the central government to meddle in provincial business.

"Even though it is only an acting post, the official should learn about the local culture and tradition," he said.

Appointing an acting official from the central government will only require more funding and time to adjust to existing conditions, he said.

The East Kalimantan General Election Commission (KPUD) says it needs Rp 108 billion to finance the second round of the gubernatorial election later this year.

KPUD spokesman Hamrun said the money would be spent on logistics, transportation and salaries for support staff in the province's 13 regencies and municipalities.

He said the proposal would be sent to the provincial administration for approval.

The amount requested is less than the Rp 190 billion spent by the KPUD in organizing the first round of voting on May 26. The KPUD will have to print ballots for more than 2.25 million eligible voters and pay the salaries of nearly 1,400 ad hoc election committee members and security guards in more than 6,500 polling stations across the province.

The second round of voting is required because none of the candidates managed to secure 30 percent of votes in the first round. Under the revised 2008 provincial election law, a minimum of 30 percent of votes is needed to prevent a second round of voting. Only the top two candidates from the first round can proceed to the second round.

Awang Faroek Ishak and his running mate Farid Wadjdy were favorites to win the election, but garnered only 28.9 percent of votes (426,325 votes). They were followed by Achmad Amins and his running mate Hadi Mulyadi, with 26.90 percent (396,229 votes).

Awang and Faroek are backed by a coalition of 14 parties, including the National Mandate Party and the United Development Party, while Achmad and Hadi are supported by a coalition of six parties, including the Prosperous Justice Party.

Elviyani N.H. Gaffar, the head of the KPUD's vote collection and counting division, said all candidates would have three days to respond to the official results of the vote counting, which were announced Monday. She added all issues relating to the first round of voting had to be settled by July 1.

"The KPUD will start preparing the second round on July 2, and we will need 76 days to make all the necessary preparations. The balloting day may be at the end of August or in early September. This date will be decided later," she said.

The chairman of Achmad's campaign team said the backing coalition was in the midst of reviewing a strategy to win the second round. He said this included drawing support from parties whose candidates had failed to get enough votes to contest the second round of voting.

In Jakarta, the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) called on the KPUD to carry out the second round in strict accordance with the newly revised law.

The previous law did not require the reigning governor to step down when contending elections, but under the revised law, incumbents are obliged to step down.

However, the current governor was not required to step down because he registered his candidacy in March, several weeks before the law was revised.

The new governor of natural resources-rich East Kalimantan will step into office to face challenges ranging from the acute shortage of electricity and clean water to the poor state of road networks.

Following Monday's first direct election for governor, locals expect to know on June 10 which of the candidates will be entrusted with the top job of improving their lives.

Election campaigns were full of pledges to reduce poverty and unemployment. The new governor of the province's 14 regencies is expected to seek foreign investment to develop the region's poor infrastructure.

Many domestic and foreign investment companies have operated in the province for years to tap oil, gold and coal reserves.

The operations of foreign oil companies like Chevron and Total Indonesia and also state-run oil and gas company Pertamina have made East Kalimantan among the country's biggest oil suppliers.

Gold reserves in East Kutai regency used to be mined by PT Kelian Equatorial Mining, while coal reserves are now tapped by, among others, large-scale coal mining company Kaltim Prima Coal in Paser, Kutai Kartanegara and North Penajam Paser regencies.

The province is also rich in fisheries, plantations, tropical forests, which have been excessively exploited.

Yet across this province power blackouts are routine.

City residents also suffer from clean water shortages, and are subject to rationing by the local water company.

Things are naturally worse off in the remote areas and the northern regions along the border with Malaysia. There dozens or even hundreds of villages rely solely on rivers for their water for bathing and everything else.

Roads are ruined along the trans-Kalimantan highways, especially the one linking the provincial capital of Samarinda and Bontang and Sengata in the south, and Berau and other areas in the north.

When completed next year, the trans-Kalimantan highway of almost 6,000 kilometers will cover East, South, Central and West Kalimantan.

Nowadays, on the route linking Berau, Bulungan and Malinau, motorists of even four-wheel-drive cars frequently stay overnight when trapped in the mud when it rains. There is no other solution except to wait for the mud to dry.

One gubernatorial candidate joked about the notorious 60-km southern section linking Bontang and Sengata.

"People usually eat rice and fish, but if they pass by this road, they can change their menu to asphalt and rocks," Jusuf Serang Kasim said.

Poverty has been on the rise every year despite official claims that it is declining. Statistics show the poor reached 324,000 last year, increasing from 318,000 in 2004, out of a provincial population of 3.21 million.

Of the poor, almost 60 percent live in rural areas with few education and health services.

Teachers in border areas with Malaysia like Nunukan, Malinau and Bulungan have had to teach all classes from the first to sixth grade.

Some teachers in Nunukan in the northernmost reaches of the province have even frequently been ordered to help teach in nearby Krayan — when flights are available.

"The only plane serving the route to Krayan has been fully booked until December 2008," said Syaharuddin, a teacher.

"Even if there is a plane, we have no money to charter it because it costs Rp 5.5 million (US$610) one-way," he said during a meeting with candidate Awang Faroek Ishak in Balikpapan.

He said a teacher's salary is an average of Rp 600,000 per month. "So please pay attention to the welfare of teachers in border areas," he said.

Health services are limited to one community health center with a single health attendant in one village in the border areas. The centers are closed when the attendant is on duty in a neighboring village.

All this has been the reality for dozens of years, and people seem immune to pledges. "We demand results, not just promises," said Pangeran Sekampung, a noted figure of the Dayak tribe in the Limbas district of Nunukan.

While poverty figures seem small it is the disparity which is striking.

The southern and northern parts of the province are starkly different. The south, including Balikpapan, Samarinda, Tenggarong and Bontang, is booming with projects.

Across Malaysia, in contrast, Indonesia's areas of Tarakan, Nunukan, Tana Tidung and Bulungan are synonymous with poverty and backwardness.

East Kutai regency has become one of the development icons of East Kalimantan, only 10 years after gaining its autonomous status.

The regency was born from its mother regency, Kutai (now Kutai Kartanegara) on Oct. 12, 1999, pertaining to Law No. 47/1999 on provincial and regency autonomy.

The East Kalimantan governor officiated the regency on Oct. 28, 1999, and set Sengata (previously Sangatta) as the new regency capital, with Awang Faroek Ishak as its first regent.

The resource-rich regency is blessed with an abundance of natural wealth in the form of coal deposits (5.4 billion tons), gold, mineral oil, natural gas, kaolin, phosphate, limestone, quartz, iron ore and 2.78 million hectares of forest.

Based on explorations, the area is also home to 18,000 ha of oil fields and 39,000 ha of gas.

Muara Wahau, Muara Ancalong and Busang are estimated to hold large deposits of iron ore, 19.7 million tons of gold, 18.6 billion tons of limestone, 1 billion tons of clay, 12 million tons of gypsum and 30.5 million tons of quartz.

This wealth of resources has contributed greatly to the regency's balance of wealth and oil profit-sharing.

In 1999, the per capita income was recorded at only Rp 18 million (US$1,914) annually, and then leaped to Rp 24.76 million in 2001.

Previously dotted with remote and isolated villages, the regency is now linked with bridges and asphalt roads.

The administration is concentrated in Bukit Pelangi, where administrative offices were built to establish the regency as an icon.

The administration has considerably improved public facilities over the last 10 years, with telecommunications, health care, education, tap water and public services. Hotels have mushroomed and investors have set up businesses across the regency.

"We will focus on a number of development strategies, such as infrastructure development and improving human resources, agro-industry and renewable resources.

"We aim to transform the regency into the best agro-industrial center in East Kalimantan by 2010," regent Awang Faroek Ishak told The Jakarta Post recently.

Agricultural commodities, such as oil palm, cacao, rubber, pepper and soybean, have also contributed significantly to the regency budget.

In 2001, the budget totaled some Rp 492.9 billion, of which 66 percent, or Rp 323.87 billion came from agriculture, Rp 216.34 from mining royalties and exploitation, Rp 80 billion came from gas, Rp 27.4 billion from oil royalties and Rp 2.9 billion from forestry taxes.

In 2006, its budget increased nearly two-fold, to Rp 1.133 trillion, of which 50 percent, or Rp 634.4 billion was derived from tax-exempted mining royalties.

Its regional initiated income then totaled Rp 14.165 billion, Rp 105.5 billion of which was derived from taxes, Rp 180.189 billion from general allocation funds, Rp 9.52 billion from special allocation funds and Rp 26.6 billion from provincial royalty funds.

This year, the budget amounted to the tune of Rp 1.7 trillion, in addition to Rp 500 billion in balanced funds.

"Natural resources have apparently played a key role so far. However, we must make sure they are renewable.

"The regency administration is currently focussing on renewable resources with the regional agribusiness development program, which aims to improve the community economy by revitalizing forestry, farming and estates, fisheries and livestock sectors," Awang said.

As an example, he cited the revitalization program in the plantation sector which projected East Kutai as the center of palm oil production in East Kalimantan.

According to data from 2006, the population totaled 214,000, which is spread across 18 sub-districts and 135 villages.

The administration has implemented a number of policies to improve social welfare, including increasing the budget for education from Rp 202 billion in 2006, to Rp 262 billion in 2007.

The regency has focussed on accelerating improvements in education by implementing the 12-year mandatory schooling program, certifying teachers and improving their social welfare with higher monthly salaries to slightly above the national remuneration standard.

The Pertamina depot for the Greater Malang area has postponed its plan to cut back subsidized kerosene supplies to Malang city.

The decision follows a request from the mayor and municipal council, who claimed residents were not prepared for the fuel conversion program.

Head of the Private and National Fuel and Gas Association in Malang city, Rizal Pahlevi, said Pertamina had decided to continue supplying 68,000 kiloliters of kerosene to Malang monthly, which is 30 percent of normal demands.

"It (the cutback) would be implemented in stages until the end of this month at the latest. Pertamina has not set an exact date for when supplies will be stopped, but hopefully people are already prepared enough to be able to face it next month," Rizal told The Jakarta Post.

Kerosene usage for Malang city has reached 200,000 kiloliters per month. Pertamina has been slashing supplies to Malang since November last year because the city was included in the government-sanctioned kerosene-to-butane conversion program.

Malang municipal councillor Agus Sukamto said he had asked Pertamina to postpone the cutback as of April 1 because residents were not ready to shift to butane.

According to a city council Commission B member, the reduction should not be imposed just because Malang had received 186,924 free packages, each consisting of a stove and a 3-kilogram gas cylinder. He said the conversion process was not yet effective.

The process should start with kerosene stove makers, distributors, depots, retailers and users, he said.

"Residents have received the packages, but no one else has. They should first become familiar with them, so they can survive. We will summon Pertamina for an explanation," he said.

Malang mayor Peni Suparto said he had sent a letter to Pertamina asking it to delay the complete withdrawal of kerosene from the city.

"Many residents are still unprepared for a total withdrawal," Peni said.

On top of the kerosene scarcity in Malang, residents have also faced difficulties in obtaining 12-kilogram butane tanks.

Rizal said this was because of competition between household consumers and the industrial sector, such as big restaurants, and hotels, which had shifted from using 50-kilogram tanks to 12-kilogram tanks, due to the huge price disparities.

Butane is sold at Rp 4,250 (40 U.S. cents) per kg for household use, and Rp 8,000 for industrial use.

Meanwhile in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, kerosene buyers have taken to panic buying since the kerosene cutbacks were announced three months ago.

Residents are seen at kerosene depots in queues hundreds of meters long, especially during scheduled kerosene consignments, such as in Baru Tengah subdistrict in Balikpapan.

The shortage has affected not only poor households, but also small-scale entrepreneurs, such as speedboat operators and charcoal makers who depend on the fuel.

Yati, 45, a charcoal maker from Kariangau subdistrict, said she had not been able to earn a living for the past two months because of the kerosene shortage. She had to travel tens of kilometers to reach a depot in Baru Ulu subdistrict just to get a limited supply of kerosene, only enough for cooking.

Yati said she was not in favor of the government's fuel conversion program.

The newly autonomous regency of North Penajam Paser in East Kalimantan is making concerted efforts to alleviate poverty.

The regency administration has built around 1,100 houses, under what it terms as modest healthy homes, from 2004 to 2007. The houses were built in the region's four districts — Penajam, Waru, Babulu and Sepaku — and in 47 subdistricts and villages.

The administration built and handed over as many as 100 houses in 2004, 200 in 2005, 300 in 2006 and 500 in 2007. It plans to build another 750 houses for poor families by December this year, providing a total of 1,850 houses over the duration of the program.

The housing assistance program in 2007 spent a total of Rp 300 billion (US$33.3 million) from the regency budget.

"Besides housing assistance, we have also initiated the sustainable empowerment program to improve people's welfare by setting aside 2,000 hectares of palm oil farms annually to less privileged families," North Penajan Paser Planning Board head Ibrahim told The Jakarta Post recently.

"We provide equal plots of farmland to those who have formed working groups, each receiving a farm subsidy of Rp 12 million per hectare in the form of seedlings, fertilizer and pesticides," he said.

The administration has been providing skills training, such as woodworking and sewing, to poor families since 2003. In 2007, through the Village Community Empowerment program, the administration provided training to 300 people divided into 30 working groups.

Poor families also receive cash assistance from the village's administrative offices to be channeled through the four districts, each receiving Rp 50 million, Ibrahim said.

"The cash aid is part of our effort to alleviate poverty using the integrated district program," he said.

"The funds are channeled through the districts and distributed at the village level. The amount received differs according to the respective districts, depending on the number of villages and poor people in each subdistrict," he said.

The regency administration has also launched the Urban Poverty Alleviation Program by establishing a women's cooperative in the regency's capital Penajam. It will loan out 30 percent of its funds to women in urban areas and 70 percent for construction of utilities such as sanitation and clean water facilities.

In addition to school operational funds from the central government, the administration provides scholarships for needy children from it education budget of Rp 14 billion.

"The funds are distributed in the form of textbooks, school uniforms and other schooling needs. Needy students are exempted from paying school fees from elementary to junior high school," Ibrahim said.

"The students also receive food supplements, such as milk, porridge, mung beans and other nutritious food, distributed by local integrated health service posts," he said.

In the area of health, less-privileged families are entitled to free healthcare in community health clinics or the nearest hospitals, such as in Balikpapan, if referred by a clinic.

Illustrating its commitment to alleviating poverty in the regency, the administration formed a team of relevant agencies in early 2007 called the Poverty Coordinating and Mitigating team.

"The team ascertains the real number of poor families in the regency. It will verify the number in the field firsthand in order to effectively distribute the direct cash assistance to poor people," he said.

The number of poor families in December 2007 was 10,736 of the 40,157 families in the regency.

"We hope to reduce the poverty rate by 10 to 15 percent each year through the programs," said Ibrahim who also heads the team.

The poor living in the regency for at least eight years consecutively can be listed as recipients of the poverty program. The poverty mitigation team pastes stickers on each of the poor family's house in order to expedite fair distribution of aid.

Residents living in remote villages along the border of East Kalimantan and East Malaysia have not been touched by development compared to other areas in the province.

Several villages are still led by village headmen instead of lurah, or village chiefs, unlike most villages in other regencies. The headmen are picked by local residents and are not part of the government's structural positions like the lurah.

Mambulu village in Sembakung district and Libang village in Limbas district in Nunukan regency lag behind in government-assisted facilities and infrastructure.

The only government assistance available in both villages is an auxiliary community health center and an elementary school. The health center is still managed by limited medical workers, while the school of around 100 pupils is overseen by just four teachers.

"A teacher could teach four to six classes simultaneously. Our village has an acute shortage of teachers," Sembakung district traditional head Pangeran Ismail told The Jakarta Post.

Mambulu village customary figure Pangeran Sakampung agreed, saying residents could not rely on the only health center in the village because it was closed most of the time.

The only nurse at the clinic also has to go to neighboring villages without community clinics, and there is no midwife at the clinic.

"We have to rely on the village midwife if our wives or daughters give birth because there is no government-certified midwife here," Ismail said.

Sea and overland transportation to the villages is scarce. To reach the village, residents must use four-wheel-drive vehicles. Without them, reaching the village could take days, even weeks, because access is through dirt roads that become badly mired during the rainy season, such as the Trans Kalimantan state highway.

It was timber companies who own forest concession permits in the areas, not the government, who were instrumental in building roads leading to the villages.

The only three large-scale forestry companies operating in the areas are PT Adindo Hutani Lestari, Intraco Wood and Inhutani.

According to Ismail, none of the provincial leaders have ever visited the village. When asked about the coming East Kalimantan gubernatorial election being held on May 26, Ismail said he was not aware of it, citing the local proverb, "I don't know so I don't care."

"Why are we going to support a candidate if he or she is unwilling to visit us? We'd rather support someone from our tribe. For anyone who wants our support, come and visit our village and see the conditions the neglected people live in along the border," Ismail said.