^{3 August 2020}

^{Note: the images below were taken before COVID-19 spread around the world.}

Amid a global pandemic, Makassar communities can rest assured that the infrastructure they co-designed with RISE just a few months ago is moving toward construction.

In a critical program milestone, Detailed Engineering Drawings (DEDs) have been completed for the first six communities that RISE is revitalising. The technical drawings are a graphical representation of the infrastructure to be built – from the arrangement of wetland components, dimensions of drains and septic tanks, detailing of steel reinforcing and the exact quantities and specifications of materials needed.

The Asian Development Bank, through the Urban Climate Change and Resilience Trust Fund (UCCRTF) funded the development of the DEDs, which was led by an international engineering consultancy, EGIS. It was critically important to translate the community designs and preferences into the DED package – an enormous task for RISE team members to communicate the nuances in design into the drawing sets for construction.

For Anna Leersnyder, a Monash-based senior civil engineer who has been working closely with the local team on the plans for months, the drawings are a tangible resource to bring discussions with residents during co-design into reality.

She also believes that having a local team who are invested in doing their best for communities is just as important as getting the technical plans right.

‘To achieve the best outcomes for communities it is much more complex than just getting the technical engineering aspects right. Every piece of infrastructure has been physically marked out and envisaged with residents during the PANRITA sessions, to ensure that residents are in agreement. Getting the small details right, such as the height of a wetland wall or the preservation of an important tree, provides
much better integration of the infrastructure into these spaces.

‘Our local Makassar team has worked alongside ADB engineering
consultants to ensure all these small details were translated accurately through to the DEDs. Their dedication, passion and understanding of the needs of different residents has been vital in this work’.

Supporting residents who have generously donated their land
Liza (Icha) Marzaman, Community Fieldworker

‘Because some residents have generously donated a small portion of their non-productive land for RISE infrastructure, I have been working to make sure that our resettlement plans record well-represented data of these residents about their assets that will be affected by the project.

ADB’s resettlement plan data captures the number of affected households, the number of affected persons (women and men), other affected assets, such as trees that will be cut down during the construction, the number of affected vulnerable households, total land areas for each of the affected households, and the total estimated budget for their compensation.

The resettlement plans make sure that the RISE infrastructure results in minimal loss for the community, and that households who have donated land for community infrastructure are appropriately compensated. We not only want to compensate these residents, we want to minimise the negative impacts of construction on the community and their economy’.

A balancing act to get septic tanks right
Noor Ilhamsyah, Architect / Engineer

‘Communal septic tanks are key parts of the RISE sanitation system that provide primary treatment of sewage. Based on our co-design with communities, our DEDs show we will be building 63 septic tanks across the first six communities.

In order to make sure the septic tanks can manage the number of people who live in a community, we have been calculating wastewater flow, detention time, and desludging frequency.

We have also needed to adjust our calculations based on limited land availability, all while making sure we follow Indonesian National Standards (SNI) in the process, which
regulates right down to the dimensions of septic tanks. Balancing all of these factors is quite tricky!’

We knew what the community wanted - we were committed to make it happen
Nur Intan Putri, Architect / Engineer

‘Finalising DEDs is a very collaborative process: we need to come together as colleagues to make sure that the position of every pipe, every wetland and every pathway is exactly as the community wants them from their co-design workshops.

COVID-19 made this collaboration very difficult, especially with looming project deadlines. To get the DEDs completed, the team and ADB consultants decided to meet at a distance and work together following COVID-19 safety protocols. This was essential to work through small but important details. For example – if there were changes on one page that could affect other drawings, we could communicate and improve it in real-time together.

Working with protective equipment and clothing, we were able to co-ordinate more efficiently than if we had worked alone. It allowed us to maintain the attention to detail and rhythm of our work. In the end, we got the DEDs finished on time and we did our best in these tough circumstances’.

Stakeholder guidelines are important, but so is thinking outside the box
Kerrie Burge, CRC Water Sensitive Cities International Engagement Manager

'Delivering a technical solution that has been designed together with residents of the RISE settlements is at the heart of what we are trying to achieve. But there are many stakeholders involved in this process (residents, RISE team members, researchers, local and central government, engineering consultants and funders…) all with their own rules, regulations, polices and guidelines that must be followed.

Many of these stakeholders’ requirements and rules are based on a traditional engineering design and delivery model, so they need to be adapted to suit the RISE approach.

Finding a solution requires listening, adapting, being flexible, and bringing people to the table that are willing to think outside the box and find innovative solutions. Most of all, it requires patience and good communication across the whole team.

The completion of the DEDs is a testament to the success of the team in being able to both identify and navigate the many challenges at each step of the design process. I am extraordinarily proud of what the team has achieved so far'.

_{Excited: the team is ready to bring co-design discussions with residents into reality.}