Rainwater tank Hambarita brings safe rooftop water home and protects daily family health
From distant scooter trips to a tap by the door, clean water is now within reach
In Hambarita, the rainwater tank named Wai La Padang stands just beside three small houses. Before this tank, families spent hours fetching a few jerrycans, losing money and days of work. Now, rooftop rainwater becomes safe water near the kitchen, so mornings start with cooking, handwashing, and children ready for school.
For years, water had to be fetched by walking or risky rides, with Jerrycans bouncing on scooters on broken roads, spilling water and causing pain. Diarrhoea was common from open, dirty storage, leading families to burn wood to boil water, filling clinics with preventable cases. The new tank, featuring a level platform and a tap close to the kitchen, changes everything: mothers can cook earlier, wash their hands and food with safe water, and children arrive at school cleaner, hydrated, and less likely to be ill, missing fewer lessons. Elders avoid steep paths and riverbeds, thereby reducing the risk of falls and fractures when an ambulance is not nearby. Privacy at the tap also makes menstrual hygiene easier, greatly improving daily life.
The Wai La Padang rainwater tank in Hambarita provides time in a poor village, valuable as money. Girls save hours by not having to haul water, and can use daylight for reading, homework, or play. A bucket for seedlings or goats no longer takes half a day from the fields. Fewer tanker trips save cash for tools, seeds, or school fees. A shared rota for cleaning gutters and screens builds trust as neighbours meet weekly for a communal task. The ferrocement walls, rebar, and base keep the 5,300-litre tank stable during harsh weather, turning short rains into days of security when pumps fail. This climate adaptation, built with local labour and guided by Fair Future and Kawan Baik medical teams, shows how clean water impacts health, keeping people healthy or sick.
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Alex Wettstein – Fair Future Foundation medico-social camp in East Sumba – Rumah Kambera, Lambanapu – the 18th of November, 2025
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