After years of walking to find dirty water, villages like Laindatang, Hambarita or Mbinudita can now access clean water from community reservoirs they built themselves. Clean water reduces diarrhea, skin infections, and fear. This is a true reflection of dignity in daily life.
Climate Change and Health in Rural Indonesia
Since 2006, Fair Future has been on a mission to create lasting change in the most vulnerable and remote regions of Southeast Asia. Through collective action, we’ve built hospitals, provided clean water, and delivered essential medical services, turning seismic challenges into transformative opportunities for thousands.
Climate Change and Human Health Worldwide
How a changing climate harms daily health
Flood damage increases injuries and disease, revealing climate change and health risks.
Climate Change and Health in Rural Indonesia
Climate change is closely linked to health issues, as seen in East Sumba, where extreme weather worsens health challenges.
Prolonged heat causes droughts, shrinking water sources, and agricultural failures, leading to malnutrition and waterborne illnesses. Studies indicate that climate disruptions increase the risk of infectious diseases and mental health problems.
Flooding also hampers access to healthcare, isolating communities in need. Addressing these issues requires efforts by Fair Future and Kawan Baik Indonesia, whose programs, such as Primary Medical Care and Kawan Sehat, aim to mitigate their impacts. The WHO states that climate change could result in an additional 250,000 deaths annually from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea, and heat stress.
Indonesian experiences highlight the urgent need for integrated healthcare solutions to adapt to environmental changes.
Alex Wettstein – Fair Future – Published in November 2025
For Fair Future, climate change and health are intricately linked issues. In East Sumba, the climate crisis begins as the land dries out.
Previously predictable rains now arrive late or descend in violent, brief storms, wreaking havoc on agriculture. Fields of corn, rice, and cassava suffer under the relentless sun, only to be washed away by sudden downpours. This erratic weather cycle allows locusts to devastate what’s left. Springs shrink, shallow wells turn to mud, and families are forced to compete for the last clean litres.
Moreover, torrential rains erode roads, destroy small bridges, and isolate entire valleys, cutting them off from essential medical assistance. What may appear as a simple weather anomaly on a map translates into a cascade of health challenges—more severe diarrhoea from contaminated water, dehydration, infections from dust and stagnant water, and increased risks for pregnant women and malnourished children. Here, climate change is the ongoing backdrop to our medical work, not a hypothetical future.
The impact of climate change on health is clear in our daily work. Long dry spells reduce access to safe drinking water, causing kidney pain, chronic headaches, dizziness, and diarrhoea. Malnutrition rises as crops fail, affecting vulnerable children with stunted growth and weakened immune systems. Parents, often desperate, cut meals and sell livestock to survive.
When rains eventually arrive, they carry their own dangers. Flooded paths and landslides block access to clinics, delaying treatment. Stagnant water fosters mosquitoes, spreading malaria and dengue into new areas. Houses damaged by floods and families forced into crowded conditions increase the spread of respiratory and skin diseases. These issues also affect mental health, as communities live in constant fear of drought and floods, stretching their physical and mental resources.
Organisations like Fair Future and Kawan Baik Indonesia work tirelessly to address these crises, emphasising that climate change does not create new diseases but intensifies existing vulnerabilities.
Our response to climate-related health issues is based on Primary Medical Care. We cannot control the rain, but we can minimise the harm it causes to people. With Kawan Sehat health agents, supported by the Fair Future Foundation, we deliver care and knowledge directly to villages, even when roads are damaged or flooded. They find alternative routes, crossing dry riverbeds or muddy tracks to reach families in need.
During droughts, we teach safe water use, early signs of dehydration, and when to seek medical help. In heavy rain, we cover food to protect it, reduce mosquito breeding—linked to dengue and malaria—manage fevers, and keep wounds clean when wet.
Our clinics offer tailored treatments for undernutrition, monitor high-risk patients, and connect healthcare with hygiene, nutrition, and mental health. Public sessions and daily talks emphasise the link between climate, water, insects, and disease in accessible language.
Our aim is not only to treat but also to empower. By connecting medical care with education on climate resilience, we strive to strengthen communities against the unpredictable impacts of a changing climate, helping them live more safely and confidently.
Your donation becomes real medical care
Help us reach the unreachable. Every franc you give funds medicines, dressings, tests, and clean water to prevent sickness. It powers solar lights for cold vaccines and night care. It keeps Kawan Sehat agents and Fair Future teams travelling hours to remote villages without doctors or clinics.
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