Water Connections is nearly twenty water tanks, almost ten sanitary facilities and two or three deep boreholes.
From the sky, we get a better idea of the immense work accomplished by the Fair Future and Kawan Baik teams here in one of the poorest regions of Indonesia.
Hello Kawan, how are you today?
Through these few images taken from the sky, the Kawan Baik Indonesia and Fair Future Foundation teams show you what this big project, Water connections, is all about—clean water and sanitation facilities for over 250 families and over 2,500 people.
But first, what does access to clean and safe water means to rural communities in East Sumba? Simply an everyday challenge, vital for tens of thousands of families here.
Why Water Connections?
Here, the water points are very far from the houses. Sometimes you have to walk all night to return in the morning with a few litres of water (ref. Mbatakapidu, Laindatang). Most of the time, the water is of unsanitary quality and the pumps, when there are any, are broken, clogged or broken down due to lack of maintenance.
This is the inhabitants’ daily life where we have been at work for years. Improving access to clean and safe water (we are not talking about drinking water here, we are very far from it), is often a priority for local populations and communities. But the people here are among the poorest in Asia, and the local authorities are broke. This is a verified fact that we have often discussed at length with the leaders in charge here.
Improving access to water reduces the time women fetch water away from home, frees up time for economic activities and schooling, and of course reduces disease and lowers child mortality due to to the consumption of dirty water. Clean water for a better life, to increase purchasing power, to have toilets and the possibility of having much better personal hygiene.
Several kilometres of pipes must be buried to supply all these installations with clean water. Access to the sites is also sometimes quite complicated because the roads do not exist, and transporting the material is often highly complex and expensive. Also, and to be completely precise, all the sanitary facilities or clean water tanks do not appear in these images taken on October 4th. In particular, three residential areas are missing. Indeed, the day we took these images, it started to rain very hard, and flying is no longer possible when it rains. Also missing from these Drone images are a few 3,000 and 6,500-liter tanks built in recent days and four toilets under construction.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us by email via the foundation’s website. The people in charge of this project will be happy to answer you.
We wish you a beautiful day wherever you are. Remember to take care of yourself and everyone you love. It is the most important. Rumah Kambera, the 14.10.2022/aw
Dates of Photos: The October 4th 2022 | Location: SD Mbinudita, Sumba Timur, NTT
Interactive map of the Water Connections Project, Mbinudita site, East Sumba NTT, Indonesia by Fair Future & Kawan Baik foundations
This Google map is for all of us on construction sites, an indispensable tool we update as regularly as possible. This allows us, among other things, to measure and calculate distances, altitudes, and differences in the levels.
Fair Future develops participatory monitoring tools as part of its screening and definition of needs. This map is produced as part of the #WaterConnections project. It is updated as a new sewerage installation, a new deep borehole, a new clean water reservoir and everything that directly or indirectly affects this project is built. This Google map allows us to work, do this project and calculate: Heights, elevations, distances, depths etc… Thanks to this tool, this project is much easier to set up.
