Water Connections, September – October 2022, Mbinudita, East Sumba.

Over the past four weeks, we’ve done tremendous work on the Water Connections Project. Eight new 6500 litre tanks for the Mbinudita region

As we wrote in the previous article, work is in full swing here in Sumba East. Here is to show you a new gallery of images taken between September 29 and October 3, 2022.

Since September 15, the teams of Fair Future and Kawan Baik foundations have worked like crazy to ensure that each of the 2,500 inhabitants of this region of Mbinudita has access to a source of clean water and healthy sanitary facilities. The heat is stifling, and working during the day’s hottest hours is difficult. You have to drink a lot to avoid getting sick.

It should be known that the risks of dehydration are enormous for the physically active people in constructing these vital installations for the region’s families. For all of us, it’s work in the field and under these conditions for more than a year already, but for the inhabitants, it’s their whole life.

In three weeks, eight 6500 liter tanks have been built and are ready to be put into operation. The start of the rehabilitation and renovation of a 62.5m3 water tank has begun… Incredible work by the teams on site

We have built eight water tanks, with a capacity of 6500 litres each, and finalized a dozen others. Quite a performance in itself, given the construction sites, which are often difficult to access. Fortunately, the Truck of Life was on site to bring the equipment, tools, food and living equipment for the teams. Indeed, it is also necessary to know that we sleep on the spot.

The shifts of our units are organized as follows: Three nights on-site, four days of work and three days of recovery and organization for the following week in our base camp in East Sumba of Lambanapu, Rumah Kambera. On the site, life is organized. It has almost become our second home here.

The teams sleep, as I said above, in one of the classes at our school in SD Mbinudita. We live there from evening to morning. The shower is freezing, especially at 6:00 in the morning. We cook what we bring from the town of Waingapu, a two-hour drive away. Here, we eat very simply even though we try to do it as healthily as possible. On the menu, it is, of course, rice, eggs, and vegetables that we find at the Waingapu market. They are expensive here, even overpriced, more than double those we buy in Java or Denpasar. Sometimes a bit of meat when a chicken passes by, if you know what I mean.

We still have a lot of things to do for the continuation of events here and the excellent continuation and finalization of the Water Connections project, Mbinudita site. Starting with the construction of the four remaining sanitary installations. For a single facility, this takes longer than constructing a 6500-litre tank.

Indeed, it is almost a whole week of work to manufacture and build a complete sanitary installation, including Two toilets/showers, a wastewater retention tank, a filtered water retention tank and all the little things that go with it construction of such a facility.

Once the final installation is completed, we will proceed to the second drilling of a deep well to supply clean water to all these installations, reservoirs, and families. And once the drilling is complete, the submersible pump, the casing of the well and the electrical source are defined. Connecting all these installations with more than three kilometres of 1-inch pipes will be necessary. We have until the end of December to finish all this. We should be able to do it if the rain gives us a little respite. Indeed, ten days ago, the rainy season began here.

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 210.10.2022/aw