Action Research of Holistic Conservation in Rawa Pening Fertilizer Engineering Technology and Lightweight Concrete By Academic-Business-Government-Community (ABGC) Synergy Approach

Abstract

Rawa Pening is the main reservoir in Semarang Regency which has experienced drastic silting. Approximately 70% of this 2.770 ha wide lake is now covered by eceng gondok (water hyacinth) plant. The quality of the lake gradually decreases alongside its higher sedimentation. If this continues and not taken care of, it is predicted that in the following years, Rawa Pening will be a dry land if there is no prevention action being done. The objective of this action research, from the upstream is to perform an introduction of watershed conservation with vetiver plants to decrease the water rate and avalanche. On the other side, from the downstream, the objectives are: 1) retrieval of eceng gondok in a massive amount, 2) utilization of eceng gondok from the leaves to roots as materials to produce fertilizer, livestock food, and lightweight concrete, 3) collaboration with private sectors to produce fertilizer, livestock food, and lightweight concrete based on eceng gondok plant, 4) business unit establishment as the means of fertilizer, livestock food, and lightweight concrete marketing. The methodology being employed in this research is participative from stakeholders which consists of academics, government, business, and community, which is done comprehensively. Due to the effort of problem handling in Rawa Pening, the expectation is sedimentation problem to be solved, the community around the lake both sailors or farmers can utilize Rawa Pening again as one of their means of work, private sectors that produce eceng gondok-based product will get raw materials guaranteed-availability and create innovation of products based on eceng gondok, such as fertilizer, lightweight concrete and herbal products.

Keywords: Rawa Pening, eceng gondok, water hyacinth, fertilizer, lightweight concrete, stakeholder

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