Saumlaki Port
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Saumlaki is a town in
Tanimbar Islands Regency Tanimbar Islands Regency () is a regency of Maluku province, Indonesia, consisting primarily of the Tanimbar Islands. The Regency covers a land area of 10,102 km2, and it had a population of 105,341 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, J ...
,
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. It is the seat of Tanimbar Islands Regency, as well as the biggest town in the island of
Yamdena Yamdena (spelled Jamdena during the Dutch colonial period) is the largest of the Tanimbar Islands in the Maluku province of Indonesia. Saumlaki is the chief town, located on the south end of the island. The island has a range of forested hill ...
. Previously a small village, it has grown to a relatively sizeable town due to its political status as a regency seat. Most of the regency's infrastructure is concentrated in Saumlaki. The administrative location of the town is in the ''
kelurahan In Indonesia, village or subdistrict is the fourth-level subdivision and the smallest administrative division of Indonesia below a district, regency/city, and province. Similar administrative divisions outside of Indonesia include barangays in t ...
'' (urban village) of Saumlaki, inside South Tanimbar District. The urban settlement extends outside of the administrative boundaries to surrounding communities such as the villages of Olilit and Sifnana.


Geography

The town of Saumlaki does not have a legal administrative boundary. However, the urban population is concentrated in the ''kelurahan'' of Saumlaki, which is the town proper. The town extends outside of the proper ''kelurahan'' to the neighbouring Olilit and Sifnana, with which it shares a peninsula in the east of Tanimbar Selatan District. The soil formation in the town consists of limestone formed from dead corals as well as relatively young sediments. The town has an average annual rainfall of with the highest amount of rainfall in January and the lowest in August. Between April and September, the wind comes from Australia, and is generally drier and causes less rainfall than usual. The average temperature of the town is between 25 and 28 degrees Celsius, with December being the hottest month.


Economy

The main economic sources of the town are
agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
and
fishery Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life or, more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a., fishing grounds). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish far ...
, including
cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...
,
water spinach ''Ipomoea aquatica'', commonly known as water spinach or kangkung, is a semi- aquatic, tropical plant grown as a vegetable for its tender shoots. ''I. aquatica'' is generally believed to have been first domesticated in Southeast Asia. It is wi ...
,
banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...
,
coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (biology), family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, ...
, and
pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...
. Livestock farming, mainly of
chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...
s and
pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus '' Sus''. Some authorities cons ...
s, also contributes to the economy. About 2,208 tons of fish were caught from waters around Saumlaki in 2020. Further economic potential comes from natural gas exploration, especially Masela Bloc, located from the Saumlaki. The bloc is expected to be managed by
Inpex INPEX Corporation is a Japanese oil company established in February 1966 as North Sumatra Offshore Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd.The Japan TimeInpex fetches 549,000 yen in debut on first section November 18 2004 Retrieved on August 14, 2012 IN ...
's child company Inpex Masela and production is expected to begin around 2027. However, disagreements over local government ownership of the project have delayed the project. There have been some controversies surrounding the exploration, especially regarding the local government's participation interest that would be obliged to own minimum 10% of production's ownership. The regency government expected to supposedly own 5.6% from the 10% participation interest, but the provincial government in Ambon expected it to be just 3% while the rest would be divided equally to all regencies in the
Maluku province Maluku is located in Eastern Indonesia and geographically located in West-Melanesia, between Sulawesi and Western New Guinea, and comprises the central and southern regions of the Maluku Islands. It is directly adjacent to North Maluku, South ...
. This has caused ongoing conflict between the provincial government and the regency government over the ownership of the company's 10% minimum obliged by the law.


Infrastructure


Education

There are five elementary schools in Saumlaki subdistrict, three in Olilit, and two in Sifnana. There are two junior high schools in Saumlaki, three in Olilit, and one in Sifnana, while the numbers of senior high schools in the town are two in Saumlaki, one in Olilit, and one in Sifnana. There are also four vocational high schools: two in Saumlaki, and one each in Olilit and Sifnana. In addition, there are three higher education institutions registered with the
Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (, abbreviated Kemendikbudristek) was a government ministry of the Indonesian government responsible for education, cultural, research, and technology affairs. Its formation resulted ...
: Saumlaki College of Economy, Saumlaki College of Administration, and Saumlaki Teaching College. All three colleges are private and owned by Rumpun Lelemuku Saumlaki Higher Learning Foundation. There are other higher education institutions in the town, but they are not accredited or registered with the Ministry of Education and residents of the town have been urged to avoid enrolling there as they have no legal standing. The creation of illegal and unregistered colleges in the town has been described by the General Chief of Private College Coordinator, who oversees private colleges under the government, as "like mushrooms growing in the rainy season" and a serious problem to the town. Residents have criticized these colleges for spreading pamphlets around the town for recruitment and causing confusion among parents.


Healthcare

There are two hospitals in the town, Fatima Hospital located in Saumlaki ''kelurahan'' and Dr. P. P. Magretti Saumlaki Regional Hospital located in Olilit. There are also two
puskesmas The (), abbreviated as , are government-mandated community health clinics located across Indonesia. They are overseen by the Indonesian Ministry of Health and provide healthcare for the population on sub-district level. The concept was desi ...
, of which one has inpatient care facilities, and 9 registered pharmacies. The Dr. P. P. Magretti Saumlaki Regional Hospital is a public hospital owned by the regency government and is classified as a D-class hospital by the Ministry of Health. It is the larger of the two hospitals Fatima Hospital is privately owned and also classified as D-class.


Transportation

Public transportation in the town consists of
angkot A share taxi, shared taxi, taxibus, or jitney or dollar van in the US, or marshrutka in former Soviet countries, is a mode of transport which falls between a taxicab and a bus. Share taxis are a form of paratransit. They are vehicles for hire an ...
that have regular tracks regulated by the regency government. The town is served by the small port of Saumlaki, which has regular routes to neighbouring towns such as Dobo in
Aru Islands Regency The Aru Islands Regency () is a group of about 95 low-lying islands in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia. It also forms a list of regencies and cities of Indonesia, regency of Maluku (province), Maluku Province, with a land area of . At th ...
. In 2021, the
Indonesian Navy The Indonesian Navy (, TNI-AL) is the Navy, naval branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It was founded on 10 September 1945 and has a role to patrol Indonesia's lengthy coastline, to enforce and patrol the territorial waters and Exclus ...
built a new naval base in the town which includes bigger port facilities capable of handling ships of to 12,000GT. The town was previously served by Olilit Airport, which was later replaced with the bigger
Mathilda Batlayeri Airport Mathilda Batlayeri Airport () is an airport located in Amfutu, Tumbur Village, Wertamrian district (near the town of Saumlaki), Tanimbar Islands Regency, Maluku, Indonesia. The airport replaced the old Olilit Airport to the south, which has ...
. The airport served around 24,000 passengers in 2020, both in departures and arrivals. The town is also connected through the Sea Toll Program for passengers and movement of basic goods.


Others

The town is the only place in the district that has banks, which include four state-owned banks, two private banks, and one people's credit bank (BPR).


References

{{reflist Populated places in Maluku (province) Regency seats of Maluku (province)