Why do we all need to have access to clean water and sanitation?
Where we work in eastern Indonesia, contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to the transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and poliomyelitis. With children and vulnerable people, a high mortality rate. Water Connections is changing that!
Our job is to ensure equitable access to water in quantity and quality, which prevents disease and sustains lives and livelihoods. Our goal is to reduce environmental health risks by managing sanitation safely and with dignity and involving women and men in managing water and sanitation resources and in safe hygiene practices to maximize the benefits for their communities.
Fair Future and Kawan Baik have launched a program to provide access to drinking water and sanitation solutions to dozens of villages without direct water or sanitation solutions in East Sumba (NTT). This program, which began in 2021, has no end date. Water Connections aims to create clean water networks near where people live in rural areas of eastern Indonesia. And provide them with direct access to clean and healthy water.
Without water, there will be no plants, no trees, no fruits and vegetables, and ultimately no food.
It’s too easy to forget what miracle water is. In wealthy countries, clean, safe drinking water is so abundant and readily available that we take it for granted. Access to drinking water is a fundamental human right.
Yet billions of poor people worldwide still face the daily challenge of accessing safe water sources, spending countless hours in line, or travelling long distances and coping with the effects on the health of using contaminated water. Millions of people fall ill or die daily because they are forced to do without these essential services. Diseases from unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation kill more people yearly than all forms of violence, including war, making it one of the world’s most pressing health problems.
Situation in rural areas of Indonesia
With a population of 264 million, Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world. Nearly 28 million Indonesians lack safe drinking water and 71 million lack access to safe sanitation facilities. Drinking water supply and sanitation are a concern for Fair Future.
Our humanitarian response, campaigns and long-term initiatives help families improve their incomes, reduce their vulnerability to disease and defend their rights
Our job is to ensure equitable access to water in quantity and quality, which prevents disease and sustains lives and livelihoods. Reduce environmental health risks by managing sanitation in a safe and dignified manner and involve women and men in water resources and sanitation management and safe hygiene practices to maximize benefits for their communities.
Fair Future is developing a deep well drilling program
The benefits of clean water influence the daily lives of children and adults and impact the quality of life in a community for generations to come. Fair Future sees a change in the habits of families who benefit from the Water Connections program. Without drilling deep wells here, families will not be able to access clean water and will have to keep walking for miles and hours to fetch dirty, unsanitary water. Most of the time, women and children are assigned to this exhausting task.
Access to better health has always been the foundation’s primary mission, and healing people simply by giving them water is incredible for us. It’s the only possible solution.
In rural areas, there are no sanitary facilities, no toilets, and no place to take a shower.
Imagine a portable toilet, but without the walls, without the water, without the seat, without the toilet paper, without the soap and/or the hand sanitiser. All around you, trees, fields or nothing! This is the reality for tens of thousands of people here in eastern Indonesia. They have no water and, therefore, no toilets.
This lack of sanitation is a significant health problem for many here but also everywhere else, especially for pregnant women, menstruating women, the vulnerable, the chronically ill and children, who are more likely to suffer from disease and malnutrition due to unsanitary living conditions.
The Water Connections program works wonders, water makes things possible here in East Sumba, and that’s what it’s all about.
Gardens appear on the site of our school and everywhere in this village of 2550 souls. Whereas before, that was not possible. From then on, new activities are created, and new opportunities arise. And people now have a healthier life.
Of all the natural elements, water is the most vital for all of us. Without water, the human body cannot grow or survive. But we don’t just drink it. Water has become essential for almost everything we do daily. Not only for cooking, cleaning and hygiene but also farming, so to be able to grow your vegetables, have a garden!
Latest posts related to this program
Economic and social effects of the Water Connections Program
- When water comes from improved and more accessible sources, people spend less time and physical effort collecting it, which means they can be productive in other ways, and this goes for the Mbinudita region;
- It can also translate to excellent personal safety by reducing the need to make long or risky journeys to fetch water. Here, children and women most often have to travel for miles to bring a few litres of “edible” water;
- Providing a clean water system – better water sources – for these more than 200 families in Mbinudita also means less health care costs, as people are less likely to fall ill and incur medical expenses. medical facilities, and are better able to remain economically productive;
- We have seen children die, fall into comas, and have mental deficiencies from drinking polluted water here in Mbinudita and elsewhere;
- Given that children are particularly vulnerable to water-related diseases, access to a clean water network or -improved water sources can translate into better health and, therefore, better school attendance. With longer-term positive consequences for their lives.
Water connections pro, it looks like this
Water Connections Mbinudita, the beginning of the adventure – We have started a program to provide access to clean water and sanitation solutions to dozens of villages without direct water or sanitation solutions in East Sumba.
Water Connections is its name. It aims to forge water connections in rural areas of eastern Indonesia to get closer to where people live. And ensuring them direct access to a clean and healthy water source.
What is this image gallery about? Water connections are not just about giving water to an entire community! Water is defined by where we live and our needs. Things are so different between the modern world and the rural world, and the definition of water takes on another meaning. What do you need? What do they need? What do they want? Through our actions, we respond to their actual needs: to have clean water, to drink more, to eat better, to shower regularly, to grow vegetables, to germinate their seeds, and therefore to have a healthier, more harmonious life. . happier! We support an entire community of people around water, more than 250 families and 2,500 people, 70% of whom are children living in a highly rural area Water in quality and quantity thanks to the #waterconnections project as part of #rebuildmbinudita. Thank you so much for your interest Kawan.
