Kota Sawahlunto or Sawah Lunto is a town in West Sumatra, Indonesia. This town covers 5.86 km² and has a population of 15,279.
Sawahlunto is one of the mining towns in West Sumatra. It was first established as a town in 1982 by the Dutch along with the coal mining operations during that time. Coal was discovered in the mid-19th century by Ir. de Greve. It was then suggested to the Dutch to mine coal in the area as it was much needed for the development of the industry and transportation at that time. Since the discovery of coal, the area has been frequently visited by geologists. Coal mining was pioneered in this area after the eventual "surrender" of the area to the Dutch in 1876. Mining was initiated in the country after its independence and was named PT Tambang Batubara Ombilin (TBO). TBO was later liquidated to be a subsidiary of PTBA (Bukit Asam) which is located in Southern Sumatra. Ever since the reformation, the area has experienced a growth in the mining community as the people felt compelled to participate in coal mining. Coal mining was not only restricted within the boundaries of the community but also extended to the land owned by PTBA TPO. The mayor at that time was Ir. Amran Nur, with Erizal Ridwan S.T. as his representative.
Administrative divisions
Sawahlunto was also known as a mining town with a geographical size of 27.345 Ha or 273.45 km². Administratively Sawahlunto is divided by 4 districts, 10 sub districts and 27 villages (desa) and 95 km away from Padang (capital of West Sumatra). It is a 2 hour drive from Padang.
Sawahlunto has a maximum elevation of about 650m above sea level. The landscape is primarily made up of steep hills which act as a hindrance to the development of the town while the old town center spanned 5.8km2. Relatively flat lands can be found in
Kecamatan Talawi district. The area that runs from north to south has a relatively steep topography at an angle of elevation of approximately 40%. On the other hand, the northern area is relatively gentle sloping. Most of its developments are located at the height of 100-500m. It consists of both protected areas (25.5%) as well as areas set aside for cultivation (73.5%). Its land dominantly consisted of mixed gardening(34.1%), thick forest and scrub(19.5%). 0.2% of the lake was once used for mining.
Climate
Similar to the other areas in West Sumatra, the town of Sawahlunto has a tropical climate with temperatures fluctuating around 22°C. The area experiences two seasons throughout the year whereby the monsoon season takes place from November to June while dry spells occur over the period of July to October. They experience approximately 1.071,6 mm of rainfall per year with the wettest month being December.
Population
As of 2005, the total population of Sawahlunto stands at 52,457, consisting of 24,456 males and 26,777 females, with a population density of 191 persons/km².
Their source of income varies from working on farms to mining and service sector. The economic structure of the people of Sawahlunto is majorly supported by the mining industry. Subsectors consists of agriculture, small industries/handicrafts and livestock farming.
With the expansion of the district based on the government law No.44, 1990, Sawahlunto became known not only for their handicrafts, snacks, livestock and fruits, but also as a tourist destination.
Geography
Geographically Sawahlunto is located at 033’40” – 043’ 33” South and 100 43’ 13” – 100 50’ 40” East, bounded from the north by Tanah Datar district, the east by Sawahlunto/
Sijunjung district and the south by
Solok district.
History
Sawahlunto is one of the many towns located in the area of
Bukit Barisan West Sumatra, but with a history different from the other towns.
Towns such as
Bukit Tinggi,
Batusangkar,
Payakumbuh,
Padang Panjang and
Solok is shaped by the
Minang community, while Sawahlunto, by the mining business during the colonisation of the
Dutch in
1888. Sawahlunto started becoming a residential area for coal miners when the
Dutch Indian government invested 5.5 million golden (the Dutch currency at that time) to build various facilities to manage the coal mining industry
Ombilin. This residential area continued to expand to become a small town which consisted mainly of officers and coal miners.
The
Dutch also built a train system costing 17 million golden as a mode for coal to be transported out from Sawahlunto through
Padang. Trains have been in operation since 1888 but only recently reached
Muara kalaban and later on reaching Sawahlunto in
1894. Having trains as a mode of transport brought in huge profits from the investment from only tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands tons of coal per year. Losses turned into big profits as much as 4.6 million golden in a year in
1920. Until
1898, the coal mining business still uses forced labour, known as narapaidana, who were forced to work with minimum wage. In 1908 wages for forced labour was 18 cents/day and they were subjected to whips under legal sanctions should they rebel. Wages for contract workers were 32 cents/day and they were entitled to housing facilities and healthcare facilities. Meanwhile, wages for other labourers were 62 cents/day without benefits (Zubir,1995). With that, you can picture Sawahlunto to be a prisoner camp for the forced workers in the early 20th century.
In 1918 Sawahlunto was known as
Gemeentelijk Ressort or
Gemeente with a land area of 778 ha. The name was given to mark its success in coal mining activities at that time. The total population in 1930 was 43,576 consisting of 564 Europeans. Even though Sawahlunto have yet to become Stadsgemeente, the management of the town was done by
Stadsgemeenteraad (
DPRD) and
Burgemeester (
Walikota).
Globally, since 1940 till end 70s the production of coals
Ombilin declined, and returned only tens of thousands of tons per year. Sawahlunto also faced a decline in coal production indicative of the decline in population to only 13,561 inhabitants in the 1980. With the increased number of facilities, a change in management and the application of new technology, the mining industry increased again since the beginning of the 80s. Moreover, production continued to increase even exceeding 1 million tonnes per year in the late 90's. The population in Sawahlunto increased to 15,279 according to the Census in the year 1990. Even though the population growth rate is only 1.2%, it is still below the annual average population growth rate of
Sumatera Barat which reached 1.62% and did not appear correlated with increased production of coal.
On March 10, 1949, a meeting was held between Afdeeling Solok, which is supervised by Sawahlunto/Sijunjung and Kabupaten Solok, under the governance of Stad Gemeente Sawahlunto, which is under the authority of Bupati Sawahlunto/Sijunjung to discuss on the natural resources gained . In the period 1949 - 1965 there were changes in the governance of Sawahlunto/
Sijunjung. The status of Act No. 18 in the year 1965 changed to Regional Level II with the title as
Kotamadya Sawahlunto commanded by the town, Mayor AKHMAD Noerdin, as of 11 June 1965, with the Decree of the Minister of Home Affairs dated March 8, 1965. The act in Item Number Up 1965. 15/2/13-227 stated the responsibility of the
Mayor as the Head of the Regional Sawahlunto.
Thereafter
Mayors who led the Town of Sawahlunto since the its inauguration to date are as follows:
- ACHMAD NURDIN, SH ( Term of office 1965 s/d 1971 )
- Drs. SHAIMOERY, SH ( Term of office 1971 s/d 1983 )
- Drs. NURAFLIS SALAM ( Term of office 1983 s/d 1988 )
- Drs. H. RAHMATSJAH ( Term of office 1988 s/d 1993 )
- Drs. H. SUBARI SUKARDI ( Term of office 1993 s/d 1988 and Term of office 1988 s/d 2003 )
- Ir. H. AMRAN NUR ( Term of office 2003 S/D 2008 ) and H. FAUZI HASAN ( Term of office, representative 2008 S/D 2013 )
- Ir. H. AMRAN NUR ( Term of office 2003 S/D 2008 ) and H. ERIZAL RIDWAN, ST ( Term of office, representative 2008 S/D 2013 )
In 1990 the
admnistration district of Sawahlunto was expanded from only 779ha to 27,344ha which brought about an increase in population. Based on the results of the Census
survey conducted with the residences in 1995, the population in Sawahlunto reflected to have increased to 55,090 people even though the land area of Sawahlunto remained the same unlike how towns would generally expand in proportion to the population growth. Due to its landscape, the expansion of Sawahlunto became a form of federation of small towns and rural settlements. However,based on the Census in 2000 the growth of its people was proven to be temporary, as the population of Sawahlunto appeared to be declining. Based on the same Census, it was stated that the total population was 50,668 people, which translates to a decline of 8% over a span of 5 years. One of the reasons for this was that a portion of the employee housing of the
Ombilin Coal Mining Unit (
UPO) was shifted out of the town area of Sawahlunto. From this aspect, it is obvious that Ombilin coal mining has a very strong influence on Sawahlunto.
Over the course of 100 years, the amount of coal that has been exploited has reached approximately 30 million tonnes with remaining reserves of more than 100 million tonnes. Although the future of the coal mining industry
Ombilin remains unclear, due to reserves which can only be exploited internally. Whether or not this will be exploited depends on the market price as well as market demand for coal and technological advancements. In addition, the implementation of coal mining is also facing a re-orientation due to its decentralised expansion. Regardless, the government and people of Sawahlunto are determined to make Sawahlunto a tourist destination with mining as an attraction. This reflects the new relationship between mining
Ombilin and town of Sawahlunto which can be further developed.
1 December 1888 marked in inauguration of the town of Sawahlunto and has been commemorated annually since the year 2005 with the traditional 'makan bajamba' along the stretch of Pasar Remaja Kota Sawahlunto.
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