The people of Sangker, Mengening in North Bali did not have access to a reliable, clean water source. One of the main ways they got water was by borrowing water from a neighboring village if it was urgent. And the amount given to them was not usually a lot, as there was not always enough water to share. If they could not get water from their neighboring village, the women had to walk down the steep ravine to get water from the rivers. It was often necessary to do this 3 times a day in order to have enough water for daily use. The people in Sangker did not have enough water for gardening or raising livestock as they barely had enough for bathing, cleaning, and cooking.
The village had located 4 natural springs about 3 kilometers up the mountain from the village that could be used to pipe water into the village. They contacted the ALB water team in July 2019 to survey and assess the feasibility of the project. The village was really excited to finally have water in their homes and provided a group of 30 men to help work on this project.
In partnership with ENTRUST from Australia, ALB began the project in September 2020 by building 2 water storage basins at each water source so that the water could flow from these 2 separate water locations into the village.
Next, the water team and the men of the village installed 2.5 kilometers of HDPE pipes to route the water from the natural springs to the water tank in the village. This was quite the task as the terrain was rough. The ravines and thick jungle surrounding the water sources and the village made laying the pipe a challenge, but our team and the men of the village were able to overcome these obstacles and complete the task.
Then, the ALB Water Team built a water tank with a capacity of 40,000 liters of water in the village. From there, they installed 2 kilometers of pipe, to distribute water directly to their houses. Along with that, water meters were installed at each of the 25 families’ houses that received water from this project.
The water meters will help to keep track of each family’s monthly consumption. Then each month, the families will pay according to their use. On average, we anticipate families paying about 15,000 IDR a month or approximately $1 USD a month for water. The money they pay monthly will be saved to be used toward future costs of repairs to the water project. In this way, the project can be sustainable and the village can be independently responsible for the maintenance costs and upkeep of the pipes and water tanks.
The community is so thankful to have running water in their homes. It has decreased their burden of having to seek water far from their homes at the bottom of a ravine. And they feel optimistic about their future and what they will be able to achieve because of having access to clean water.
This water project helped 25 of the 100 families that lacked access to clean water. Access Life Bali hopes to continue to partner with the village to help the remaining families also.