Clean water to improve living quality of Buleleng villagers

Thursday (21/4), Buleleng – Once hit by persistent drought, agriculture in Bali experienced a slap pretty hard on sustainability. Especially clove farmers in North Bali, which is the biggest commodity for the agricultural industry in Bali.

Sampoerna for Indonesia supports IDEP Foundation, in cooperation with the villagers in Buleleng to establish a water management system and improved sanitation to maintain their productivity. The development program is aimed at helping communities Buleleng clove farmers, especially the Strait Village and Village Gobleg.

“Communities need access to springs that are equitable, especially with prolonged drought conditions like this, the management and maintenance of water resources is necessary to be improved, especially for the agricultural sector. It is very important to remember, the current state of the island is facing the threat of a water crisis. The amount of groundwater that continues to decline due to overexploitation, destruction of many springs and seawater intrusion into a new threat to the availability of water in this beloved island.” said Ade Andreawan as the director of IDEP Foundation.

During the eight months of the program helps communities to build and repair water reservoirs, providing water distribution pipelines, as well as public sanitation facilities. This facility was built based on the needs of the community  experiencing a shortage of water and sanitation facilities such as public toilets, with the aim that this clove farmers can get access on water for their agricultural productivity, along with health and hygiene of their family.

Handover ceremony held on Thursday, April 21, 2016 in the village of Gobleg aims to give full rights to the villagers of Gobleg and Sealt to use and manage facilities that have been built for them. This event attended by IDEP Foundation, Sampoerna for Indonesia team, Buleleng Region officials for Public Works Service, and village governments followed by Gobleg and Selat villagers.

The reason for choosing a group of clove farmers in the village of Selat and Village Gobleg is because most of the farmers' groups in the region are farmers assisted PT. HM Sampoerna Tbk. which is a major supporter of this program. Each village consists of 65 members of a group of farmers in the village Gobleg, and 52 members in the village of Selat. Communities of these two villages simultaneously contributed to the development of water reservoirs and public toilets in the village.

For Gobleg Village, the construction carried out is in the form of building two water reservoirs (including a gravity pump system from its source), as well as the repair of two water reservoirs that leaked. It is also equipped with the installation of piping and distribution system along the 3km using HDPE pipe. Followed by the construction of sanitation facilities such as public toilets built in the Hall tempek (which is also in the construction period). With a quite heavy terrain, especially during the rainy season, the development process was done by mutual cooperation of community groups.

Followed by the construction of sanitation facilities, a pair of public toilets in Banjar Dinas Witajati, Village Selat. The restrooms was built to meet the needs of the people to sanitation facilities while doing activities in groups in the bale banjar, or when conducting customs and spiritual.

“The public toilets are needed because when there is a traditional activity, people hardly able to find toilet, so had to use neighbor's house or going back home to their respective homes. Worst, some of them are just pee carelessly  .” mentioned Ketut Nara, the head of Selat Village’s clove farmers group

Expectedly, development that has been done can be useful to society and properly maintained. This activity is able to become a pilot to address the needs of society, especially farmers clove in Buleleng facing the lack management of water and sanitation facilities such as public toilets in order to avoid drought and diseases such as diarrhea and vomiting during the dry season comes back.