In East Sumba, for several days now, grasshoppers have been destroying all crops, vegetable gardens, soybeans, and corn. For three years, it has come back regularly. During high population years, they feed and severely damage almost all crops, trees, shrubs, and vegetable gardens. We are in contact with the most affected populations who tell us how the fruit of their work, their fields But also their garden, are totally destroyed in a few minutes. The impact is enormous for these poor families since their income is not enough to buy food. Rice in particular is expensive, therefore corn harvests are very important and vital for families. A new trade is in the process of being born: The sale of grasshoppers by the kilo; this is in order to eat and be nourished. The price is IDR. 5,000,000.- per kilo, i.e. less than 50 cents.

Clean water is life, health, food, leisure, energy… Water covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface. It is in water that life on Earth began, so it is not surprising that all living things on our blue planet need water. Water is indeed many things: it is a vital need, a home, a local and global resource, a transport corridor, a climate regulator. And, over the past two centuries, it has become the end of the journey for many pollutants released into nature and a newly discovered mine rich in minerals to exploit. To continue enjoying the benefits of clean water and healthy oceans and rivers, we must fundamentally change the way we use and treat water.

There are no toilets here, everyone practices open defecation. Furthermore, no one has direct access to water of any kind, and no access to a source of clean, drinkable water. Fair Future and Kawan Baik Foundations are changing that with the #waterconnections program, but there will always be people who live even further than far. We meet those people, all those families that we don’t forget. Thanks to all of you and our teams who are there, on the ground at the time of writing this line, they will also have access to one of our solutions, a borehole, a reservoir connected to the network…

Water we do not realize how important it is when we have access to it like that, by opening a simple tap and sometimes forgetting to close it. Water is when we don’t have it that we realize how important it is, how vital it is for our everyday life. So for a moment, let’s try to imagine what our life could be like without water. And if we have access to it, that this water is not consumable! This is what the families experience here, the children of all these villages in which Fair Future works almost 24 hours a day. The health of people, the prevention of diseases, the reduction of infant mortality, offering a better quality of life, food every day, a shower every day and for everyone are just a few aspects that oblige us to work and develop. innovative and sustainable solutions, relating to access to water in quantity and quality for families in the poorest and rural regions.

Having clean water close to home is a real challenge that Fair Future and Kawan Baik have taken on, so that the more than 2,200 villagers of Mbinudita can have clean water in their homes for the first time in their lives. This is so that everyone’s life is healthier, happier on all fronts, clearly more harmonious. Even if it is very hard physically, sometimes morally because we are isolated from everything and everyone, there is not a day during which we are not happy to be able to work within the framework of this immense project, one of the largest ever conducted by the Swiss foundation and its Indonesian twin sister, Kawan Baik Indonesia foundation.

Go to school, learn, concentrate, walk… All this with little water and food! This is the challenge faced by thousands of kids, their teachers and families. Not having enough water when you are a child, sometimes having to walk several kilometres to get to school. Not having enough to eat, not being able to wash. The difficulties of the teachers, their testimonies are revealing of the food, economic and access to water crisis which the children and their families have to face every day of their lives. Fair Future and Kawan Baik try to respond in the best possible way to these vital problems. Avoid malnutrition, improve health, provide access to a source of clean water so that children can go to school and learn in the best possible conditions.

Pollution of streams and natural springs and everywhere. It is rare to find still pure sources whose water is not dangerous for health. Fair Future, within the framework of its prevention programs and access to better health, meets people from the most rural and poor regions of this immense country, offers affordable, simple and understandable solutions for all. At the same time, we are building clean water networks, we are drilling deep wells to provide access to quality water, in quantity, to families, children and vulnerable people.

Drinking contaminated water can lead to serious health problems. Cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, scabies, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, trachoma, typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, hepatitis, malnutrition and poliomyelitis, significant metabolic fatigue causing disorders of all vital systems, to death.
In the long term, consumption of water loaded with heavy metals, pesticides, nitrates and other chemical components such as arsenic are likely to cause serious congenital malformations in newborns: Limb deformation, hydro-encephalitis and other physical or mental disabilities.

Where are we with MbinuDita’s Water Connections project? What are the funds that we have already collected, those that we have already invested in this vital project like never before for more than 2000 people without access to clean water? We present to you via a small infographic what we have already done, what remains to be done and the schedule for the next steps.

We want to thank all those who help us in this project and are proud to announce that we received in donations, approximately 42% of the total budget. We encourage you all to do even more to carry out this vital project for more than 200 families, more than 2000 people, women, and children who do not have access to clean water. Without water in quantity and quality, living conditions cannot improve and people become sick and die. Without water, there is no green, no blue, no life. Without water, there are no plants, no trees, no fruits, no vegetables, no food.