Clean water flows again after years of shortages in remote Bantul hamlet

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Bantul

Ending many years of water shortages with the opening of a new fresh water facility, December 29, 2007 was an important day for villagers in the remote hamlet of Sanan, some 20 kilometers to the south of Yogyakarta in the regency of Bantul.

For the first time, that day the villagers were able to get fresh spring water on tap in their homes, following the official launch of a newly built water supply facility.

The project was jointly conducted by villagers in cooperation with local NGO Yayasan Komunitas Yogyakarta, with financial support from U.S.-based NGO AmeriCares.

"I don't need to walk three kilometers down the hill to get water any more," said a villager, Sunarto, 65, as he turned on the tap at his home to wash his hands and face.

"Now I can spend that time and energy doing something else."

Sunarto's house is situated highest in the village, which is some 1,350 meters above the sea level, not far from the newly built main water reservoir.

"I can take a bath twice a day now," Tarmuzi, another elderly Sanan villager, said.

Previously a person of his age had only been able to bathe once a day in his village, he said.

The nearest water spring, he said, was in the neighboring hamlet of Kedungpring, some three kilometers down a hill. He used to walk there to wash and often had to queue before being able to do so, he said.

After bathing he would fill a plastic container, that he had carried with him from home, with water, and then carry back home for his home water supply.

"By the time I got home I would normally be sweaty again," Tarmuzi said.

Head of Bawuran village Suripto said clean water supply had been a big problem for years in Sanan, one of the three highest hamlets in his jurisdiction facing shortages.

The other hamlets were Sentulrejo and Jambon, with populations of 300 and 400 consecutively.

"The May 2006 earthquake made conditions worse," Suripto said, "Ever since then, the wells dried up quickly."

Thanks to the US$95,000 project, some 320 of Sanan's 450 families are now able to enjoy fresh water piped straight to their homes -- that is some 1,000 of the hamlet's total population of 1,500, AmeriCares country director David Prettyman said.

The project was initiated in September 2006, as part of AmeriCares' post-earthquake relief program in Yogyakarta, with the construction of a 120-meter-deep bore in Sanan. Some two kilometers away, the highest reservoir was then built.

Water was then pumped into seven reservoirs built in the upper areas of the hamlet, each with an average capacity of 12,000 liters, to be piped to people's houses.

All the construction work was done on a voluntary basis by the whole Sanan community including housewives, chairman of Sanan's Water Supply System Network Sugeng Widodo said.

"We did not mind working hard day-and-night," Sugeng said.

"The results are worth every bit of it."

The whole community were proud to have been actively involved in the project right from the start, he said.

Gotong royong or mutual social cooperation, Prettyman said, was the key to the project's success.

At each step, starting with project planning, its implementation and future maintenance, he said, the community were actively involved.

"I think this is a good model solution for a population in need of clean water supply," Prettyman said.

Prettyman claimed to have been working with various NGOs in Indonesia for the last 20 years.

Yayasan Komunitas Yogyakarta director Didit Abdul Majid echoed Prettyman, saying in developing the project, the two NGOs had not only involved the community but allowed them to take charge of the entire project.

"We are now preparing a village meeting to further discuss how the facility should be best managed and maintained," he said.