Challenges in maintaining facilities in elderly Pondok Village environment

Abstract

Pondok originates from an Arabic wordal-funduq which implies a hostel, a transitory home or dormitories meanwhile in Indonesia, a pondok is known as pesantren and dayah. The function of the pondok house is to serve as a center for the study of Islam in the Muslim community that does not have a specific age limit and is allowed to all genders. But most pondok houses are occupied by senior citizens who want to study Islam. The construction and existence of pondok house including facilities provided are mainly used for religious activity. Due to lack of law and regulations to govern the development of Pondok Village (PV), it drives a few problems that are related to insufficient facilities provided which then causes poor performance in managing it. This paper is presenting on the preliminary study from two pondok sites located in Perak, Malaysia. This paper is sought to discover the barriers related to implementing sustainable facilities management to PV. An interview with the building operators and an observation of the facilities provided in the PV was conducted. The findings reveal that lack of financial, lack of knowledge and skill related to sustainability, lack of staff to manage the building and facilities, lack of technology and inconsistent guidelines implemented are the key barriers that contribute to the performance of PV facilities management. Thus, this research recommends the implementation of sustainable facilities management of PV to reduce the cost of operating, proper training to the staffs that manage the facilities in a better way, thus increase skill and knowledge. Finally, the regulatory body should take holistic action in providing a standardization of facilities that should be provided in PV development and management.