This paper focuses on the Indonesian urban sanitation sector by placing it within
the wider urban infrastructure sector and spatial system. In this paper,
‘sanitation’ is limited as domestic wastewater collection and treatment. Through
our understanding that the sanitation sector and its problematic are
interdependent with other infrastructure networks within urban spatial
development, we will not see the problems as merely technical ones, e.g. lacking
of finance, management capacity and technological solutions. This paper aims to
1) show that unevenness of wastewater infrastructure development is rooted in
uneven spatial development; 2) show that defining ‘sustainable city’ as a future
path for planning our urban environment necessitates more attention to the
sanitation sector with its economical, social and ecological aspects; 3) seek a
framework for identifying creative collaborations that can inform policy making in
Indonesian water and sanitation sector.