Kendari receives a Rp107 billion integrated waste programme with a processing facility at Puuwatu as its focus

A handover in Makassar, a plan for Puuwatu

Kendari, the capital of Southeast Sulawesi, has received an integrated waste management programme worth Rp107 billion under the 2026 Local Service Delivery Improvement Project, known as LSDP. Mayor Siska Karina Imran received it on Tuesday 6 October 2026 at a handover for Sulawesi recipients held in Makassar, South Sulawesi. The programme was presented by the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Bima Arya, together with the Chair of Commission II of the House of Representatives.

Kendari was not alone in the room. Local reporting lists four Sulawesi recipients at the event: Kendari city, Palu city, East Luwu regency and North Toraja regency. Palu's mayor, Hadianto Rasyid, received the same Rp107 billion figure for his city, presented by House member Longki Djanggola alongside Bima Arya. The handover therefore reads as a regional milestone for eastern Indonesia rather than a single city announcement.

For Kendari the destination of the money is already clear. The city intends to direct the programme towards strengthening waste services, including the planned development of a waste processing facility in the TPAS Puuwatu area, the city's final disposal site. The mayor was accompanied at the handover by the Speaker of the Kendari city council, La Ode Muh. Inarto, and the head of the city's development planning agency, Muh. Saiful. Having the legislature and the planning agency present at the moment of receipt is a useful signal that budgeting and oversight for the next phase will move together.

What LSDP is and how it pays

LSDP is a national programme coordinated by the Ministry of Home Affairs through its Directorate General of Regional Development, known as Bangda, with World Bank support. The World Bank approved the project on 18 December 2025 at a value of US$350 million, covering 30 districts and cities across Indonesia. The Bank expects more than 15 million people to benefit from cleaner and healthier surroundings.

The design is what makes it distinctive. LSDP works through performance based grants. Local governments do not simply receive a construction budget; they receive support tied to improvements in how the waste service is run. Local coverage of the Kendari handover describes the scope as covering institutions, planning, financing, facilities and infrastructure, collection and processing. The World Bank describes three pillars: national sector reforms such as source sorting and professional service providers, the performance based grants themselves, and capacity building for local governments through training and knowledge sharing.

At the national level, Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian has linked the programme to the country's zero waste vision for 2050 to 2060. For a city of Kendari's size, the practical meaning is more immediate. The programme gives the city a structured route to fund a processing facility while also strengthening the institution that will operate it.

"Waste problems require thorough handling, not only in transportation and final disposal, but starting from the source, collection, transportation and processing through to final processing." Siska Karina Imran, Mayor of Kendari, 6 October 2026

Kendari's waste in numbers

The scale of the task explains why the city prepared so carefully. Reports from the Kendari Environment and Forestry Agency, known as DLHK, have described daily generation in slightly different terms over the past year, and Sirkularium sets them out here rather than choosing one. In April 2026 the city cited environment agency data putting generation at around 256 tonnes a day. In August 2026 the mayor's office described production as nearly 300 tonnes a day. A June 2026 review of DLHK data reported an average of 350 tonnes a day arriving at TPA Puuwatu in March 2026. Earlier, in March 2025, ANTARA Southeast Sulawesi reported DLHK figures of 7,533 tonnes a month. The differences likely reflect measurement points, since tonnage generated across the city, tonnage collected and tonnage weighed at the landfill gate are not the same quantity. Whatever the precise baseline, the direction is clear: on every reading Kendari handles more than 250 tonnes a day, a scale that calls for processing capacity and not disposal alone.

The facility planned at Puuwatu is an integrated waste processing site, or TPST. In April 2026 the city said the TPST was planned to process about 100 tonnes a day and that the output would be refuse derived fuel, an alternative fuel processed from solid waste. Officials were candid at the time that about 150 tonnes a day would still need other solutions, which is exactly why the city has paired the facility with source based measures rather than relying on hardware alone.

Budget figures have also evolved as the plan matured, and readers should treat them as stages rather than contradictions. In April 2026 the city reported an initial Rp17 billion from its own budget and total planning above Rp90 billion. In August 2026 the planning agency reported about Rp24 billion prepared for building the TPST at Puuwatu in 2027, and city coverage in the same month referred to an allocation of around Rp140 billion through the central government and World Bank programme. The figure formally handed over on 6 October is Rp107 billion. Sirkularium notes the earlier Rp140 billion estimate and the confirmed Rp107 billion so that readers can follow how the number settled.

Preparation that made the city ready

Kendari reached this point through a deliberate readiness process. On 27 August 2026 a Bangda team from the Ministry of Home Affairs visited TPAS Puuwatu with the Deputy Mayor of Kendari, Sudirman, the head of DLHK, Erlis Sadya Kencana, and the head of the public works agency, Muh. Jayadi. At that stage 11 programme indicators had been declared clear, while 10 others still needed supporting documents. The Bangda representative described the visit as accompaniment rather than assessment, a framing that reflects the collaborative tone of the whole programme.

The city has also been building the demand side. In August 2026 Kendari announced a neighbourhood based waste handling institution, to be piloted first in 15 kelurahan spread across eight kecamatan. The mayor was frank that household sorting remains the weakest link, and she has repeatedly said the government cannot solve waste alone. Civil servants have been mobilised as well: a collection drive by the city's own staff gathered about two tonnes of waste in its first week.

On the disposal side, DLHK said in April 2026 that the city aims to upgrade TPA Puuwatu towards sanitary landfill operation in 2026, with daily cover applied as part of the current controlled landfill regime. A processing facility at the same site complements that goal, because every tonne turned into fuel is a tonne that no longer needs cell space.

"The most important thing is how this programme truly strengthens the waste service system from upstream to downstream." Siska Karina Imran, Mayor of Kendari

Sirkularium's view: a performance grant is a governance opportunity

For government and public institutions, the Kendari handover offers three practical lessons.

First, the preparation sequence worked. Kendari identified a site within its existing disposal area, set aside its own budget, worked through the indicator checklist with Bangda, and kept its legislature informed. Cities hoping to access LSDP or any successor programme can follow the same order. A secured site inside an existing landfill boundary removes the most common source of delay in Indonesian waste infrastructure.

Second, the performance based design rewards service improvements, not only construction. That makes the institutional pieces as important as the TPST itself: a clear operator, a tariff or retribution model that can cover operating costs, reliable data at the weighbridge, and a pathway for refuse derived fuel to reach a buyer. Securing an offtaker for the fuel early, whether a cement plant or a power producer in Southeast Sulawesi, would give the facility a steady operating purpose from its first day.

Third, the neighbourhood institution and the processing facility should be measured as one system. A 100 tonne a day TPST performs best when the waste reaching it is already sorted, and the 15 pilot kelurahan are the natural place to prove that. Publishing a consistent monthly figure for generation, collection and landfill intake would also settle the baseline questions noted above and give the performance grant a clean benchmark.

What to watch next: the start of TPST construction at Puuwatu in 2027, the first operating results from the 15 pilot kelurahan, and how Palu, East Luwu and North Toraja deploy their own allocations. Four Sulawesi recipients moving in parallel create a rare chance for peer learning across eastern Indonesia, and Sirkularium will follow their progress with interest.