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Runners enjoy Flores amid drought, raise funds to support clean water facilities
Dozens of running enthusiasts from various communities in Indonesia have turned their hobby into a rewarding experience, raising funds for the cause of building clean water facilities while enjoying the beauty of drought-affected areas in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara
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span>Dozens of running enthusiasts from various communities in Indonesia have turned their hobby into a rewarding experience, raising funds for the cause of building clean water facilities while enjoying the beauty of drought-affected areas in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara.
Setting out from Jakarta, East Java's Surabaya and Bali, runners come together in a 57-kilometer charity marathon in Nagekeo regency organized by Plan International Indonesia Foundation (YPII), under the theme “Explore the East, Run for Equality”.
The executive director of YPII, Dini Widiastuti, said on Saturday that about Rp 290 million (US$20,611) had been collected via crowdfunding website kitabisa.com and that it would be donated to two villages currently affected by the drought, namely Tedakisa in Aesesa district and Renduwawo in South Aesesa district.
In addition to helping build clean water facilities to mitigate the drought, Dini said, the activity would also be a voice for gender equality in areas where women were often solely burdened with meeting household water needs.
“All around Indonesia, including in Nusa Tenggara, women are the most marginalized ones in various situations, including when facing the surrounding climates, on the grounds of beliefs about ethnicity, gender stereotypes and unequal power relations,” said Dini.
Globally, she continued, Indonesia was ranked 84th out of 144 countries for gender equality, according to the 2017 World Economic Forum. One consequence in Flores, she said, was that household water needs were still mainly met by women, when the task should also be shared by their male counterparts.
“This responsibility creates a high risk of situation where women are threatened with harassment and sexual violence since they have to walk for hours to get clean water along unsafe roads,” she said.
Dini added that the drought had made local people, even the young children who needed spare time to learn and play, spend more time searching for water sources than in pursuing quality education.
“The situation has also brought a high risk to the health of young children because without access to clean water, they often suffer from diseases such as diarrhea and this may lead to stunting,” she said.
Besides providing access to clean water in the form of drilled wells and troughs to distribute water to Nagekeo's homes, YPII has also made a long-term plan to help other locations in Flores.In total, YPII targets 526 hamlets with its five-year clean water supply program, including 153 hamlets in Nagekeo, 121 in Pulau Timor and 252 in Lembata, where 36,382 children live, 50 percent of whom are girls.
Nagekeo Regent Yohanes Do has expressed his appreciation for YPII members displaying such empathy to help build facilities in his regency, one of the areas in Flores that has always faced difficulty in getting clean water.
The local administration, Yohanes said, has not been able to sufficiently supply clean water because of regional budget constraints. For this reason, the area has always needed private investment to help meet the needs of its seven subdistricts.
“Maintaining the availability of water for long-term production, we apply the terraced farming system here, so that there is always a water trap in accordance to the hilly topography of Nagekeo,” he said.
Yohanes said that his administration had proposed to the central government that a large dam be built on the border of Aesesa and South Aesesa districts. A total of 200 hectares of land has been prepared for the resulting reservoir.
A neighborhood unit head in Nangaroro subdistrict, Armandus Djogo, admitted that clean water had been distributed from areas with sufficient underground sources, yet the residents there were rationed to only one hour per week of clean water.
Consequently, the water crisis that has been going on since July has forced some residents to buy water from tanker trucks that costs Rp 75,000 to Rp 100,000 per 1,200-liter tank.
On early Saturday morning, residents thronged to the side of the highway near the local tap water company’s pipeline, waiting for the water to flow. By noon, however, their five-liter jerry cans remained empty. (syk)
