Riverside Public Bath In Katulampa – So Sad!

The picture was taken in Katulampa District, East Bogor. Few women sit on a place covered by rag with a political party name written.

Perhaps, you may ask what they were waiting and doing.

The answer is that they were waiting for their turn to take a bath or washing clothes. The place is a public bath. Yes, a public bath.

You may raise your eyebrows, I can understand. Bogor is a modern city near the Capital of Indonesia, Jakarta. You may guess and expect that every house in the city to have their own bathroom. Unfortunately, it is not as your imagination.

Bogor has been suffering from the rapid growth of its population. The land can not expand but the number of people has increased in great pace. As consequences, people use any empty, no matter how narrow it is or if it breaks laws.

Public Settlement on RiversideRiverside has become more and more popular for people to live in as usually the land price is cheaper ( Of course cheaper, as usually it is illegal land as the laws prohibits to settlement set up on riverside).

Usually, the riverside settlement is lack of public facility . In many cases, even the houses have very minimum equipment/facility , as the too small size can not afford. Finally, people move their sight to the river.

They start to set up, by their own initiative, to provide at least the min facility, the public bath places. Since, most of the people living on the riverside do not come from a wealthy circle, they can’t afford proper public facility.

Riverside public bath in BogorSo, the result is what you see on the pictures. The public bath is not a Japanese Sento which is convenient. What the people establish is just a place that can stop other people to see them while they are bathing, just that. No others.

So sad to see this but this is the “hidden” reality in the city.

Mari Berbagi

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