To try to overcome the constraints found in Titehena and Demon Pagong, two subdistrictssub districts of Flores Island, IMVF has developed – since 2011 – a project in this area, thus seeking to increase the availability, access and use of drinking water by local populations. More than 1,800 people have already benefited from the project.
The fourth most populous populated country in the world celebrated its Independence Day on 17th August. This emerging economic power is, however, anything but homogenous. Located in the Province of Eastern Sonda, Flores Island is amongst the most disadvantaged of all the regions of Indonesia. Among its five administrative communities, East Flores is by far the most isolated and poor of the rest of the island. More than 230,000 thousand people live in the territory, most with scant access to clean water and electricity, a very different scenario from the one in the stable and developed capital, Jakarta.
Backed by the Portuguese Cooperation, Águas de Portugal Internacional and by the local administrative community, the project to Enhance the Access to Basic Social Services has already been able to directly serve directly more than 1,800 people from four villages in the towns of Demon Pagong and Titihena, intervening in the springs that supply the cities villages and performing worksworking on in the precarious water supply infrastructures.
As a results of one of the first phase of studies and assessments on the best way of to interveneintervention, the project is now well underway. “The constructionworks to strengthen the supply network have has progressed as planned and works have been completed already in three of the four springs have already been finished and established in five villages, with approximatelyvillages approximately 60% of completed execution of the works are concluded,” says Zara Merali, local project coordinator.
The project team meetings with various government departments and the district governments – directly responsible for the villages – have been constant throughout these months, resulting in the sharing of information on the progress of works, sharing of rehabilitation techniques for adequate infrastructure and even, according to Zara Merali, support and intervention to resolve small setbacks, such as cutting the a water pipes, made by two members of the community, not realizing that it is not possible to have all the drinking fountains open at the same time – a simple question of water management.
“The fact of havingthat there are drinking fountains in the villages still requires a restricted use in order to get access to water throughout thefor the whole community, which should be fair,” she explains, “which is done by dividing the opening of distribution lines for certain periods during the morning and afternoon.”
The leadership of theThe village leaderss, as well as representatives of various government departments, have been consistent and constant in the acknowledgments and references that are made to the project, recogniszing the progress made so far.
For the next few months, it is expected to extendan extension of the action to 5 more villages is expected, complemented with appropriate training – developed with the support of the DNGO World Vision Indonesia – for the use, maintenance and repair to of the systems, ensuring a greater longevity of for infrastructures and enabling greater autonomy of populations in terms of access towhen accessing safe water.