I

f offered two options, a glass of boiled water or a glass with filtered water, then Indra Suryawati from Tumpang subdistrict, Malang, East Java, will, without doubt, take the latter.

“It tastes fresher, compared to when I drink boiled water,” said the 31-year-old mother of two.

But the important thing was that “the water is free of bacteria and consuming filtered water allows me to be more economical”.

She used to spend Rp 500 per five liters of water on gas to boil the water. However, after she turned to filtered water, it’s no longer necessary for her to spend the money on gas. “With an average of 330 liters of water per month, I can save about Rp 33,000 per month, or Rp 396,000 per year,” she said.

“But that’s the minimum because we sometime consume more than 11 liters per day,” she said.

“I had wanted to give my family filtered drinking water for a long time,” she said, but she could not afford a water filter because “it’s costly and I have to pay in cash, but luckily I was informed about the Nazava water filter that offered to take payment through 10 installments,” she said.

She said that she bought one priced at Rp 260,000 and has paid seven monthly installments so far. Apart from the filter and the storage, she also received a measurement device and a cleaning sponge.

To keep the filter functioning well, she said, she cleaned it by using the sponge once a week.

An outbreak of diarrhea hit Tumpang subdistrict in 2013, leaving two dead. “That’s why as a preventive measure, we now consume filtered water.”

Indra is one of the many villagers from Tumpang subdistrict who represents an increase in the number of water filter consumers.

Meanwhile, Novianto, 30, from Tulangan subdistrict, Sidoarjo, East Java, has turned to filtered water after proving for himself that it had no side effects.

He acknowledged that when he first consumed the filtered water several months ago, he was somewhat in doubt about drinking the water taken from the storage without first being boiled.

“It has turned out that I am okay after drinking it […] it has no side effect and that’s why I firmed up my opinion,” said the father of one, who works at the local village hall.

The well water in his house, he said, was not safe to drink because it is close to a septic pit. “We only use the well water for washing clothes, plates and taking a bath,” he said.

So he must buy drinking water from a water seller. Prior to his new habit of drinking filtered water, he had to boil it first before being consumed.

He shared Indra’s view, saying that consuming filtered water saved on LPG, which his family used to boil the purchased water once in every three days.