A Spark of Hope for the People in Karimunjawa
A visitor takes a photograph at the Love Hill tourist attraction in Jatikerep hamlet, Karimunjawa Island, Jepara regency, Central Java, on Wednesday (5/4). After electricity started to light up Karimunjawa in May 2016, tourism in the area has rapidly increased. Some 200-250 tourists visit the site every day.
For decades, the people of the Karimunjawa islands off the northern coast of Java lived in scarcity.
As full-day electricity has recently been distributed to the region, the hope to be equal with mainland Java is now strengthened. Other than tourism, electricity will also boost local maritime traditions.
Arif Rahman, 45, hurriedly turned the lights on when Kompas visited his home in Karimunjawa village, Karimunjawa island, on Wednesday (5/4/2017) morning. The living room, which had been dark, brightened. The faint sound of clothes being washed was heard from the back yard.
“Now, we can do housework all day long. Before, we needed to wait until night time as electricity only flowed here from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.,” Arif said at the beginning of our discussion.
This condition made life hard for locals as they had to wake up earlier to cook rice. If they woke up after 6 a.m., they could not use electric rice cookers. Cooking rice using traditional means takes longer.
For 37 years, the people of Karimunjawa used a diesel-powered electricity generator (PLTD). The usage was limited to basic needs like powering lamps and electric fans.
The PLTD on Karimunjawa Island was managed by the locals. However, its capacity of only 500 kilovolt-ampere (kVA) could not cover the electricity needs of the 5,000 locals. As a solution, locals took turns not receiving electricity.
“If the fan was not turned on during sleeping hours, it was difficult to sleep. The air is hot here and the mosquitoes are huge,” said Sugito, 33, or Penyu as his friends call him.
The locals paid Rp 2,500 per kilowatt hour and a monthly subscription fee of Rp 50,000. However, when problems occurred at the PLTD, such as when it ran out of fuel, locals could live without electricity for up to a month.
Fuel scarcity occurred often. The difficulty reaching Karimunjawa Islands made the residents feel alienated. The scarcity resulted in fuel prices of Rp 16,000 per liter in 2010. Arif said he needed to spend between Rp 1.8 million and Rp 2 million to purchase 2,000 kWh of electricity.
Modernization
The condition from 1977 to 2015 was in stark contrast with the situation today. After state electricity company PT PLN opened the Legon Bajak PLTD with a capacity of 4.4 megawatt in Kemujan village, Karimunjawa Island, on May 30, 2016, locals could enjoy electricity all day long. Arif expanded his electricity usage from 2,500 kWh to 10,600 kWh. He uses the electricity to develop his motel, named Firzah, that he built in 2009. He replaced the electric fans in the accommodation’s 14 rooms with air conditioner (AC) units.
As a result, the number of his guests has spiked. He used to receive between 50 and 75 guests per month. Now, he receives up to 150 local and foreign travelers. Arif said he paid Rp 1.2 million for his electricity consumption. “My payment category is the business 1 tariff, which is Rp 1,100 per kWh,” Arif said.
The presence of round-the-clock electricity has changed the local’s lives. Fisherman Arifin, 45, said he could rest immediately after coming home from his sea trips these days. He no longer has to watch over his children while studying and worry that the kerosene lamp used for lighting may fall and cause a fire. Apart from fishing, he often serves as a tour guide for travelers wishing to snorkel or visit islands.
Motel owner H Inong said new businesses mushroomed after 24-hour electricity service was provided. Apart from laundries, there are also internet cafes, photocopy places, food stalls and grocery stores. “At night, the villages glitter with light. In the old times, not all the houses turned on their lights for fear that the generator’s power supply would collapse,” he said.
Nowadays, Karimunjawa is no longer a remote region. Detailed plans to develop the region as a major tourist destination in Central Java have existed for four years. The development project is part of the Central Java administration’s efforts to attract 2 million foreign travelers annually from 2019 onwards. Currently, Karimunjawa receives 72,000 travelers per year.
Karimunjawa has great potential as the cluster of 27 islands, five of which are inhabited, offers stunning natural panoramas, including sunrises, sunsets and beautiful coral reefs. The ecosystem comprises 51 unique genera, over 90 types of hard corals and 242 types of ornamental fishes.
Referring to the National Tourism Development Master Plan, four of Central Java’s tourist destinations are Magelang (Borobudur)-Yogyakarta, Jepara (Karimunjawa)-Semarang, Sragen (Sangiran)-Solo and Cilacap (Nusakambangan)-Pangandaran.
Natural obstacles
Of the five inhabited islands in Karimunjawa, only two enjoy round-the-clock electricity, namely Karimunjawa Island and Kemujan Island. Thousands of residents on Nyamuk, Parang and Genting islands still use village-owned PLTD and solar cells with limited power.
PT PLN Kudus area manager Didi Rahmad said the electrification ratio in Karimunjawa was only 70 percent, meaning that only 7,000 people enjoyed full electricity services. The PLN-built Legon Bajak PLTD can only distribute electricity to two islands. The main obstacle is the distance between the islands. PLN must construct undersea cables to distribute electricity. “Nevertheless, we will search for the opportunity to distribute electricity to [the other islands] as electricity can support tourist development,” Didi said.
After decades of living in scarcity, the face of Karimunjawa has changed. Glimmering lights adorn the villages at night time. A new hope has emerged for locals to stand as equals with those in other regions.
