Marlina fills at least five 25 liter jerry cans everyday with clean water that flows from a natural source on elevated, mossy ground next to the main street of Angantiga, a village in Petang district, Badung regency.

She fetches the water to fulfill the needs of the only community health center in the neighboring Plaga village.

The middle-aged helper usually asks a fellow villager to drive her to the spring, which lies some 10 kilometers from Plaga, with the health center's ambulance.

The jerry cans, however, are barely enough to meet the needs of the health center, which is frequently flocked by patients.

Marlina often has to bring the empty jerry cans to a nearby tap, where long queues are a daily occurrence, to get additional clean water. Unfortunately, the water comes from the tap at a mere trickle.

"This water scarcity gives me a headache! Although I have filled all of our water basins and pails with water, it is still not enough to fulfill the needs of the health center," she said.

Her headache is shared by more than 300 households in Angantiga and Plaga.

Angantiga, a village populated by Hindu and Muslim populations, actually has a sizable river running along its outskirts, yet reaching the river is no easy feat.

The villagers have to hike downhill along a 800 meter, narrow, steep path which crisscrosses difficult terrain. Understandably, the villagers use the river only for bathing and washing clothes.

Carrying heavy jugs or jerry cans filled with water from the river back along the uphill track to the village is a too difficult.

Several years ago, the people of Angantiga had a chance to solve the water scarcity problem when the local administration launched a district development program which provided funds for the construction of water pump facilities and the drilling of subterranean wells.

The village's Hindu community opted for the electric water pumps while the Muslim community went for the cheaper mechanical ones.

In retrospect, Ram Sudin, head of Angantiga's Muslim community, said the mechanical pumps were a better choice. Nowadays, the mechanical pumps continue provided the community with a steady, albeit limited supply of clean water.

The electric pumps' expensive operational costs, on the other hand, forced the Hindu community to turn them on only during major temple festivals.

"Most of our Hindu brothers and sisters do not have access to clean water. As far as I know they only have one mechanical pump," he said.

However, the Muslim community's mechanical pumps have yielded less water recently.

"I do not understand why the water deficit happens during this, the rainy season," Ram said, adding that fellow villagers had planted more trees around the water sources tapped by the pumps.

Ironically, a line of water pipes belonging to the Badung Tap Water Company (PDAM) runs through the village. However, the company has yet to construct a distribution network in it.

So the villagers can hear the rumbling sound of water passing through the pipes but can't get to it, a fact that angers local youths. Some have said they would break the pipe.

"I heard from an officer that the PDAM found an adequate water source on the border between our village and Kerta village. I hope they can somehow use it source to supply us with water," Ram said.

Giri Prasta, a member of the Badung Legislative Council, who hails from Plaga, said the village was currently equipped with two water reservoirs of which water was connected to five taps on the streets.

In 2008, the regency drilled a subterranean well in Plaga to mitigate the village's water scarcity problem. But the well, which reportedly cost hundreds of millions of rupiah, has yet to produce any water.

Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika said late last week that the Province's Public Order Agency would check the condition in the two villages.

He said he thought that the water scarcity problem in the district would not be as bad as that in Karangasem: the island's eastern most province has a chronic water scarcity problem.

"Well, I cannot promise when it (the water scarcity) will end. I think the rich Badung regency can manage this problem," he said, referring to the fact that the regency, which is home to Kuta and Nusa Dua, receives the bulk of the island's tourism revenue.

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