Changing lives with the gift of clean water

Bambang Soedjiartono ,  Contributor ,  Medan   |  Tue, 06/23/2009 1:23 PM  |  Lifestyle

On a scorching-hot afternoon, the town of Berjaya in North Sumatra looked shabby and unclean.

The houses, occupied by the families of fishermen and dockworkers, sat higgledy-piggledy on the marshland, an area plagued by pollution and a lack of clean water.

In this neighborhood, in Bagan Deli, in Medan Belawan district, about 18 kilometers east of Medan, poverty and a scarcity of potable water have been a way of life for decades.

It used to be that the little water there was came from pumped wells, channeled to residents at a rate of Rp 4,000 per hour.

For a long time, the costs of water and electricity were a considerable burden for the poorer people in Berjaya as they struggled to get what they needed each day.

But recently, after a 12-month project, things took a turn for the better.

The project, the result of collaboration by the Medan city administration, Tirtanadi Regional Waterworks Company (PDAM) and USAID-Environmental Services Program (ESP) along with several NGOs, succeed in finally giving people the clean water they dreamed of.

Thanks to the project, PDAM-Tirtanadi channels clean water through 3,543 pipes to disadvantaged households in this deprived and densely populated subdistrict. The water has brought a new measure of joy to the women and children here, with youngsters playing in the water, turning on taps and filling containers.

Saniah, a 45-year-old mother of five, expressed nothing but delight about having her home connected with a tap water supply. She described the providence of PDAM's drinking water as "a blessing from God" she could never have imagined, and promised to cover the water meter in her front yard with a strong box to protect it. "I am so grateful and so it's my responsibility to maintain the water equipment properly," she said.

Having lived in the neighborhood since she was three months old, this fisherman's daughter confirmed that having potable water had been a luxury, at least as long as she had been married.

"I used to spend about Rp 10,000 a month and had to queue up for clean water. So we had to skimp on it," Saniah said with tears in eyes, expressing a fervent hope her children would be spared that difficulty in the future.

Similarly delighted was 36-year-old Siti Aisyah, also a resident of Berjaya. Although the new supply closed down her previous business - supplying water from the well - she is not discouraged by the loss of income: Since the tap water began flowing at the end of March, she has formed a community group to collect drinking water fees.

When she sold the water pumped through hoses from the bore at her home to neighbors, she charged them each Rp 2,500 per half-hour, giving her a monthly income of between Rp 800,000 and Rp 1 million.

"I'm not disappointed, because we have all longed for clean water while the quality and taste of well water remain the same as brackish water," said Siti, who uses the new clean water for her own family.

The clean water supply for poor people in the Medan Belawan district covers the subdistricts of Bagan Deli, Belawan Bahari and Belawan Satu. It is managed on the basis of active public participation through Water Consumer Community Groups (Pokmair), which are responsible for the maintenance of pipes from the main meters to those in residents' houses. For the 3,543 pipe connections, 26 groups have been set up.

According to 51-year-old Sodikun, chairman of one of the Pokmair, "the group takes care of water pipe maintenance to ensure the proper operation of water channels from main meters to residents' homes, as well as collecting water supply fees."

PDAM-Tirtanadi Medan is responsible for the maintenance of the master pipe installations to the main meters.

As chairman of a Pokmair, Sodikun coordinates the supply for more than 100 families whose dwellings are connected with the PDAM-Tirtanadi drinking water network in his area.

"This water management job takes up a lot of attention and time," Sodikun said, adding he was pleased to give it because it meant the residents could have clean water at a low price.

"It's now easier for us to pray at home. Before, ablution water was hard to get, let alone during an outage, which at times forced us to give up praying," he added.

The gift of water for the people in these three subdistricts of Medan Belawan has turned out to be a gift of life, as it gives people a more hygienic and decent life, and means they can use their meager incomes for other things than the high cost of well water.