“The children no longer have to wake up early in the morning to get water from the river before they go to school, or go to fetch water after school. Every time we need water we can go to the well in our village, and get the water we need for the day. It’s so much easier now!”
Apriana, a woman in Sumba, Indonesia is thankful for the community wells constructed by World Renew and its local partner, the Centre for the Development of Holistic Ministry (P3H) through funds raised for "clean water for disaster-affected communities" in World Renew’s annual gift catalog.
In early 2011, the Sumba Island of eastern Indonesia experienced crop failures due to drought. World Renew and P3H responded by providing emergency food to meet immediate needs as well seeds for longer-term food security. The emergency food assistance lasted for five months until community members could harvest the crops grown from the new and diverse seeds that World Renew had provided.
Because World Renew is also committed to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), they held meetings with affected communities to determine if there were additional ways that pepole were vulnerable to future disasters; and how these vulnerabilities could be reduced. Together, they decided that a top priority would be to find reliable sources of water that were nearer to the villages. Funds from the gift catalog meant that World Renew could begin this project right away without first having to raise more support.
World Renew and PH3 contracted local engineers examine the island for potential groundwater locations. In many villages, the residents were skeptical that groundwater could be found. In the past, people had searched unsuccessfully. The community members came to believe that a well was simply not possible for them.
Yet, after several months of digging, they had success in Wingapu village. “One day at around 5pm, the person digging the well shouted from the bottom of the well saying that he struck water. Some people wanted to go down the 20 meters to see for themselves. But the workers came up with wet hands. It was a happy moment for us! More people volunteered to help dig the well until reached the necessary depth to draw out the water,” said Umbu Heri Majangga, a community leader.
“The well dug by P3H and World Renew helped us very much. This is a big help to all the people of the village because now we can get water at any time, and we don’t need to spend hours to only fill a 20-liter jerry can like we did before.”
He is happy that the people no longer have to walk six km each way, twice a day. “The well is used not only for people, but also for our livestock. The well is a big blessing to our people. We give thanks to those who helped bring water close to our home. We no longer have to worry about water, even during dry season.”
The wells have been especially helpful for women and children. Women and girls were the ones who had primary responsibility for fetching water. Apriana explained that they used to go to a river twice a day to fetch water. “We would leave our homes at 6am, and arrive back at about 10am. At 3pm we went back to the river to get water for the second time” she said.
She and other women usually carried a water bucket of 10 or 15 liters, and a bucket full of clothes to be washed in the river. Children also found it difficult to go to school full-time because of the time it took to fetch water.
“The well dug by P3H and World Renew helped us very much. This is a big help to all the people of the village because now we can get water at any time, and we don’t need to spend hours to only fill a 20-liter jerry can like we did before.”
In the Harharu village, World Renew’s partner staff found a potential location for a new well in the front yard of an elementary school teacher named Matius Turajanji. He gave his permission to dig a well there and even offered to move his house if that made the well drilling easier.
In this community as well, many people believed it was simply not possible to get groundwater. But After the digging had gone deep enough, ground water was discovered.
In addition to being used for drinking, cooking and cleaning, the water from this well is also used to irrigate gardens. Turajanji and 14 other community members (11 women, 4 men) received training from a local volunteer agricultural animator, named Rahmat, on planting and raising vegetables.
“Before this we only planted and consumed cassava leaves, papaya leaves and pumpkin leaves as our vegetables. Then Rahmat came and introduced and taught us how to grow many different kinds of vegetables. We are so happy because we learned how to plant vegetables, make organic fertilizers and pesticide by using our local raw materials, which are available in our land,” they said.
In total, World Renew drilled eight wells in Sumba. There have been many ripple effects of this access to safe water – including reducing the workload for women and children, caring for livestock and other animals, and also the ability to plant more nutritious foods.
World Renew is grateful to its supporters, for making it possible to effect long-term change in these communities through their gift catalog gifts.
