According to WHO and UNICEF estimates, approximately 30 percent of Indonesia’s 57.5 million rural residents currently lack access to a clean water supply. Shallow and borehole wells are an economical and relatively easy way to address this issue.
IRD has worked with communities in Aceh and Yogyakarta to provide and/or rehabilitate wells in rural communities and their schools. IRD helped 40 communities to build 83 dug wells and 10 borehole wells with water towers to serve nearly 3,500 people. This work, which also included 12 schools in Aceh Barat, was done with funding from the Latter-Day Saints Charities and UNICEF. In Yogyakarta, IRD helped to rehabilitate wells in 163 schools after the 2006 earthquake with funding from UNICEF.

IRD utilizes a community-based approach, with strong community involvement in the identification, planning, and implementation process, including management and maintenance. Our goal is to facilitate cost-effective, sustainable solutions that maximize the number of beneficiaries and can be easily maintained for years to come.

IRD begins by meeting with local government, village heads, and community leaders to ensure all stakeholders understand the activity and have the opportunity to get involved. Volunteers are requested to participate in the initial mapping and data collection exercises. Once IRD completes further in-depth, independent data collection through home visits and focus group discussions, it presents the resulting community profile in a community meeting for feedback. The community decides the strategic placement for the wells and how they themselves will be involved in the construction of the facilities.

A core group of volunteers is established in each village to organize and oversee the community’s involvement in the program. Members include the village leader, religious leaders, women’s leaders, healthcare providers, school principals, and youth representatives. The core group works with IRD to finalize the recommended water and sanitation solution for presentation to the community. The core group is also responsible for health and hygiene promotion, monitoring project progress, and maintaining village-level water and sanitation facilities.

A water sanitation committee is formed under the core group. This committee is responsible for coordinating and participating in the implementation of the project as well as the ongoing maintenance and operation in each village after project completion.

The minimum standard of clean water required for daily activities such as cooking, bathing, and sanitation is 50 liters per day per person. IRD works with the community to identify the most efficient, economical source for supplying a village’s water requirements. When a distribution network is not accessible, shallow wells can be dug as long as the water table is high enough and the water source is suitable for consumption. Shallow wells are fairly simple and quick to construct. They can also be used latrine facilities if they cannot be connected to sewage systems. The community digs the well and makes the cement rings with assistance and supervision from IRD.

If a shallow well is not a viable solution, a borehole well is an alternative with additional training in operation and maintenance for the water committee. A professional contractor is needed to construct a borehole well. IRD holds a transparent, competitive tendering process to identify and engage these contractors, with all stakeholders represented.

IRD provides training to the core groups and water sanitation committees throughout the process. Training for the core groups cover such things as community facilitation, health and hygiene promotion, basic contstruction, and monitoring.

The water sanitation committee is responsible for ensuring weekly cleaning, maintenance checks, and, in the case of borehole wells, daily operation of the pump. IRD also works with the committee to become a more formal institution that has a constitution, by-laws, and management policies and is recognized by the district government. To strengthen this institution, the committee receives management and organizational training including administration and financial management.

A tarriff system is adopted to ensure cost recovery for operation and maintenance expenses and is managed by the water sanitation committee. Each household’s tarriff is based on its level of consumption and collected on a regular basis. In some cases, the communities may decide to implement a sliding scale where poorer and/or female-headed households may pay less and commercial entitites may pay more. However, this is for the communities to decide.

Another important component of sustainability is the communities’ use of proper health and hygiene practices; without proper hygiene communal and household facilities can easily become contaminated. Each village core group has members who are trained by IRD in health and hygiene promotion. These members in turn teach their neighbors and encourage the use of these practices throughout the community.

The core group and the water sanitation committee also receive training in monitoring and evaluation. Once the project is completed, they will conduct their own monitoring to ensure that the water facilities are being used and maintained properly, that the community continues good hygiene practices, and that this knowledge is being passed on to the next generation. IRD staff will also return after project completion to evaluate the quality of the project’s continued operation.