In rural Indonesia, sexually transmitted infections spread silently. No testing, no education, no access to care. Untreated infections lead to infertility, neonatal complications, and chronic disease. Prevention, early diagnosis, and community training are not optional. They are urgent.
Health systems cannot function without roads, water, electricity, and basic logistics. In rural Indonesia, care often stops where infrastructure ends. No access means no diagnosis, no treatment, no survival. Building health starts long before the patient arrives.
Malnutrition weakens the immune system and turns simple infections into life-threatening conditions. In rural Indonesia, children face this cycle daily. Without nutrition, prevention fails. Without treatment, recovery stalls. Food and medical care must go together.
In rural medicine, delay is often the difference between life and death. Distance, lack of transport, and late diagnosis turn treatable conditions into emergencies. Every hour matters. Strengthening early care and access is essential to reducing preventable deaths.
Rubella continues to circulate in rural Indonesia, often unnoticed. Without vaccination and early detection, it leads to severe congenital complications and lifelong disability. Prevention exists. What is missing is access, awareness, and consistent public health action.
Plastic waste is not just pollution. It contaminates water, food, and air, directly impacting human health. In Indonesia, exposure is constant and cumulative. Without waste management and prevention, this silent crisis fuels disease across entire communities every day.
Unsafe water remains one of the leading causes of childhood illness in rural Indonesia. Diarrhea, infections, and dehydration are not accidents. They result from a lack of infrastructure, clean water access, and prevention. These diseases are avoidable with simple, proven solutions.
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Water Connections
Clean Water Infrastructure
Safe water systems in ultra-rural villages
Water Connections is a field-based water infrastructure programme developed in ultra-rural Indonesia, where safe water systems do not exist. Entire villages rely on seasonal streams, open wells or distant sources. There is no municipal network, no treatment plant, and no maintenance structure. Our teams design, finance and build gravity-fed systems, deep wells, reservoirs and protected distribution points, in coordination with local authorities and village leaders.
The programme prevents waterborne infections, chronic dehydration and hygiene-related diseases that directly affect child health and maternal safety. We construct reinforced reservoirs, install submersible pumps when required, protect catchment areas and train local operators for maintenance. Each site is monitored over time to ensure structural durability and safe daily access for households and schools.
Water access is not assistance. It is a public health infrastructure.
Why Water Matters
Unsafe water drives preventable disease cycles.
Without safe water infrastructure, minor infections escalate into severe dehydration, sepsis or chronic malnutrition. Delayed access to clean water increases exposure to pathogens and weakens immune resilience, especially in children. Early intervention through structured water systems reduces infection risk, stabilizes hygiene practices and reinforces community health at its foundation.
Field Evidence and Case Reports
A healthier life thanks to the Water Connections program
This new "Picture of the Day" shows a delighted father who can now provide daily showers for his children, thanks to the newly installed water supply. Previously, they could only shower sporadically, sometimes only once a month. Additionally, the photo showcases the new sanitation facilities constructed in Mbinudita. The Water Connections project has successfully installed over forty reservoirs, thirty sanitary installations, three deep boreholes, and more than 15000 meters of HDPE pipes.
Water scarcity can be a significant source of stress for some regions, and various factors can cause it. Arid climates, low rainfall and prolonged droughts are just a few conditions that can contribute to water scarcity. Poor water resource management and a lack of knowledge can also exacerbate this problem, making it even more difficult for everyone to access the water they need to thrive.
Despite these challenges, Fair Future is working hard to address water scarcity and ensure people have access to this vital resource. That is why we have developed the Water Program Connections.
Fair Future and Kawan Baik have noticed a significant improvement in the behaviour of families who have benefited from the "Water Connections" initiative. This program has enabled people to grow gardens, consume healthier food, enjoy life more, reduce stress, and boost energy levels. As a result, there has been a marked decrease in illnesses.
Witnessing these positive changes fills us with joy and reinforces our conviction in our decisions. Fair Future and Kawan Baik Foundation have always aimed to improve individual health, and providing access to safe drinking water is a beautiful way to accomplish this objective. As a Medical Foundation, Fair Future Foundation understands clean water's significance for maintaining good health. Drinking enough clean and healthy water is crucial for various physiological processes, including body hydration, proper organ function, digestion, and elimination of toxins.
Access to clean and safe water prevents dehydration-related illnesses, such as urinary tract infections, kidney stones, and constipation. It also significantly prevents dehydration, particularly in hot areas where sweating and water loss through respiration are common. While water is necessary for maintaining good health, we understand better than anyone else that certain medical conditions may require alternative treatments.
Kullup is a hole in the rock to collect rainwater
This new "Picture of the Day" shows you kids from the village of Laidatang, who fetch water far from home in the "Kullup" of the village. Elthon, responsible for documentation (with the black t-shirt), and Alex, from the medical staff, are also present in this photo. With the kids and one or two adults accompanying us, we walk more than an hour to reach this place in the middle of a high hill. You must descend a steep path to access these hand-dug holes in the rock. In 30 minutes, we will have to go up the hill and walk back. But this time, loaded with several jerrycans filled to the brim.
The Fair Future and Kawan Baik teams spend two days with the families of the ultra-rural and isolated village of Laindatang to get to know them even better. In this village, we have the project to create a #WaterConnections project. I let you read here the articles related to this project and here to see what your want to do to save their lives,
In Laindatang, families only have access to rainwater. It's for everything: eating, drinking, cooking, bathing, washing clothes, drinking water, caring for children, sick people or watering animals. Therefore, one of the ways for women and young girls to have water at home to live on is to walk several kilometres to find the "Kullup".
Kullup, what is it? These are small stone basins, directly dug into the rock by the villagers, used to collect and store rainwater in rural areas. When it rains, the water seeps into the ground at the top of the hill and then is filtered through the earth and the basements. It flows drop by drop in these stone basins, the "Kullup". Then the villagers come to fill their jerrycans with five or ten litres.
The "Kuluk" are an essential water source for the local communities. But the quality of stored water can be affected by bacterial contamination, chemicals, animal waste or debris. Therefore, regularly cleaning these small holes in the rock is essential to maintain water quality. It is important to note that the "kuluk" is only a temporary solution to the water crisis in areas with limited access to drinking water. Indeed, the "kuluks" cannot fill up correctly without rain. They dry out about ten days after the last rains and remain dry for almost nine months. To find water, young girls, women and children, sometimes under five, will have to walk even further and longer.
Our two organizations work with local communities to implement longer-term solutions, such as constructing water supply networks using deep boreholes and sealed and healthy rainwater cisterns. The Water Connections program offers innovative and sustainable solutions. It includes promoting water conservation practices with “Kawan Sehat” and self-sustaining access to Primary Medical Care through the PMC program.
Reduce health risks with clean water for families
In this "Picture of the Day" shows you what children do several times a day: Fetch water for the family with some 5-litre jerrycans. Most of the time, the young girls take care of this. Here in this photo, it is a young child of ten years. There are no daughters in the family. He does this job instead of going to school. He and his family have only two litres or less of water a day for eating, drinking, bathing and everything else.
Unfortunately, like here in Tana Mbanas (Sumba Tenggah), there is still a vast majority of villages in Sumba that do not have access to clean drinking water. In these villages, the inhabitants often depend on surface water sources such as rivers, lakes or ponds, which bacteria, viruses, chemicals or by animals and insects mostly contaminate.
The lack of clean water has severe consequences for the health of the inhabitants. Waterborne diseases, such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid, hepatitis A, Malaria and Dengue fever, are common where access to clean water and toilets is limited or absent. These diseases can be severe and even fatal, especially in children, pregnant women and the elderly.
To help villages without clean water in Sumba, Fair Future and Kawan Baik are implementing effective measures to improve access to clean and healthy water. Our solutions include drilling deep wells with our equipment, construction of water treatment plants, storage tanks, rainwater harvesting and storage, and installation of water management systems—irrigation and construction of healthy sanitation facilities.
We are still seeking funding and technical resources to set up sustainable, safe and clean water infrastructure in this region, one of the world's poorest and most dry.
Alexandre Wettstein from the Foundation’s Medico-Social Camp in East Sumba, Rumah Kambera, Lambanapu, on Mai 1st, 2023.
Giving life to the village of Laindatang
The current priority in this village is to give them clean, safe water and sanitation. Here, families must walk for miles, sometimes more than 10 hours, to bring a few litres of clean water home. People here have less than 2 litres per day and a person to drink, eat, go to the toilets, and wash. So you have to make sacrifices. Malaria is taking its toll here, just like infectious diseases that considerably weaken families' health, especially those of children under five. This is a critical situation for us on a health level. Still, on a social level, Fair Future and Kawan Baik, in collaboration with the local authorities, wish to start a simple Water Connections project in this village as soon as possible.
What does a kitchen look like without food or water
This new "Picture of the Day" shows you what the kitchen of an East Sumba family is like. A kitchen like there are tens of thousands here. One of the elements we always see is the presence of five-litre jerry cans. They are the ones that serve as a container for the water that the girls and women have to fetch from afar. We also notice the absence of food, including no rice, only corn. Rice is expensive, and nobody can buy it here in Laindatang, East Sumba: No electricity, running water, and sink.
Just a hearth that will be used once a day only to prepare corn porridge mixed with vegetables and roots that the women have been looking for in the forest. Salt and red peppers. That will be all for the day and the whole family, including dogs and cats.
Families here live without clean or potable water, yet access to potable water is crucial for survival and maintaining good health. Without clean water, families in the areas where Fair Future and Kawan Baik work are forced to drink contaminated water, which leads to waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery.
This has an immense impact on daily life and livelihoods. Women and children must walk long distances to fetch water, which takes up much time and interferes with other activities such as work or education.
What do the sanitary facilities we build look like?
This new "Picture of the Day" shows you an example of construction that we carry out in the poorest villages of Indonesia and Asia. Here the families before did not have access to clean water and toilets. Fair Future and Kawan Baik Foundations have been changing this for years, and noticeable changes are being seen.
Access to drinking water and toilets is a fundamental human right. Still, unfortunately, in the regions where we are, nearly 90% of families in ultra-rural areas do not have access to these necessities. Here are some steps that can be taken to provide access to clean water and toilets in the regions that do not have access:
The first step is to identify the areas most needing these facilities. Fair Future and Kawan Baik proceed through research, surveys, and working with our local partners and authorities. Once regions that do not have access to clean water and toilets have been identified, we develop plans to provide these services. This takes into account the specific needs of each community. To do this, we have several ways to provide access to clean water, such as drilling deep wells, installing water filtration systems and collecting rainwater. The method used will depend on the specific needs of the community.
Access to toilets is also essential to reduce the rate of infectious diseases such as Cholera, Dengue, hepatitis A, and Malaria. In this photo, two sanitary facilities have been built using the Ferro-Cement method, with a tank for collecting dirty water and clean water for watering.
Fair Future also considers it essential to educate the community on the importance of hygiene and sanitation practices to prevent the spread of disease. We do this through the #waterconnections and #kawansehat and #primarymedicalcare programs.
One of our missions is also to monitor and maintain these new facilities. This requires the training of local community members who will carry out essential maintenance and repairs.
We have a toilet for the first time in our life!
This "Picture of the Day" shows you an adorable couple from East Sumba, the village of #mbinudita -who are not used to being photographed-. Beneficiaries of the #waterconnections program who have had access to toilets at home for a few hours. But not only toilets: They can shower there, wash their clothes, and create a vegetable garden. And most importantly, eat and drink healthily. No more getting sick from the water. No more spending hours on the paths to fetch a few litres of dirty water.
East Sumba is one of the regions in the world with the highest rate of malnourished children. Infant mortality due to lack of clean water and toilets is staggering. Our medical teams still spend much of their time giving medical treatment and medicine to people and children who don't have clean water to swallow. Or how to treat a child who suffers from diarrhoea by giving him tablets that he will have to drink with inedible water, the source of his illness? Say to cook the water? It has no wood; frankly, when you're thirsty, you drink what's there.
But here, things have changed dramatically. Over thirty healthy sanitation facilities and over forty clean water tanks have been built for these almost 280 #rebuildmbinudita families. Every week we see new vegetable gardens created, many more children going to school, including young girls, and more mothers looking after their families instead of walking for hours to fetch five litres of dirty water.
When only dirty water remains to try to survive
This "Picture of the Day" shows some children looking slightly disappointed at the edge of the well, which contains no water. There are only 30 to 50 centimetres of water left. This water is black and dirty, and it will surely make them sick. But they will bring some back because, as the villagers often tell me: "When you're thirsty, you don't have time to boil water or find clean water. You're thirsty, so you drink this that there is …".
Having clean water heals people, improves families' health and reduces disease. Water is the best medicine in the world.
Here in Laindatang, the community, its inhabitants, and the families have always maximized the use of rainwater for cooking, eating, and drinking. Washing or doing laundry is done simultaneously: People wash their bodies with detergents directly at the water source. Linked to the lack of water, the villagers wash only once a month – with the related health consequences – or at best, every two weeks.
It should be noted that these families have never had sanitary facilities. Peeing and pooping are done behind a tree with all the health issues. For menstruating women, the lack of water makes this time very complicated.
A sanitary emergency: We invite you to support the urgent program in the village of Laindatang, East Sumba, which consists of giving water as quickly as possible via a deep borehole, two healthy sanitary installations and two/three water tanks 6,750-litres of water to these several hundred people. Click on the button bellow.
East Sumba, a village without clean water!
This "Picture of the Day" shows you a thrilled woman because when we last visited the "Water Connections – Laindatang" Project site, we brought – thanks to the Truck of Life – several jerry cans filled with drinking water, or about one hundred litres. So everyone is scrambling to get a little. We shared this water with the villagers.
The Water Connections project, Laindatang Site, is one for which we also seek help. Laindatang is a village without drinking water. People only wash once a month, are sick and don't have enough to eat and drink. All children are underweight, and so are adults. We must act for these hundreds of people and give them access to drinking water. The project consists of drilling a deep borehole, building healthy sanitary facilities and two clean water storage tanks, of the ferro-cement type, with a capacity of 6,500 litres each.
Here Malaria, Dengue fever and infectious diarrhoea linked to the problems of contaminated water are wreaking havoc. After carrying out the feasibility studies, we are now ready to implement this project this month. Indeed, we are on the site now and would like to start this necessary project for the hundreds of people suffering from a lack of water in the region.
Water Connections project in Laindatang
The Water Connections project, Laindatang Site, is our current top priority. Laindatang is a village without water. Everyone is sick and does not have enough to eat and drink. Children are underweight, and so are adults. We must act for these hundreds of people and give them access to clean water. Here, malaria, dengue fever and infectious diarrhoea linked to contaminated water problems are taking their toll. After completing the feasibility studies, we are ready to implement this project this month. Indeed, we are there now and wish to start this necessary project for the hundreds of people suffering from the lack of water in the region.
A simple jerrycans story in East Sumba
Two litres of water per day and per person to live. And this, thanks to an object as innocuous as an old five-litre can. A stupid plastic container? For most of us, it is an object that will go irretrievably in the trash. But here, for the families that Fair Future and Kawan Baik work with – tens of thousands of families – it is essential to the survival of an entire family because it is thanks to him that these two litres of water will come home. So, let’s talk a bit about plastic canisters, if you don’t mind, to understand why it’s so important.
Water Connections, look at all we’ve done!
Look at what has been done in the last 20 months, it’s simply extraordinary because doing this in this region was a priori impossible, but we did it. We are at the end of the line in the Water Connections project, we have “only” a few things left to build, including a huge 25,000-liter tank. Here is the project map for you, so you can see all that has been done in this ultra-rural region, one of the poorest in Southeast Asia.
