Radical Transformation in Laindatang: Water Connections Program Phases 2 and 3.
Sustained Commitment in Extreme Conditions, a Changing Reality.
What we have achieved in a matter of weeks is extraordinary given the extremely challenging conditions. Here, there is no water, no electricity, no toilets, and no access to healthcare. We sleep on-site from Monday to Saturday.
Transporting the materials required bringing five dump trucks loaded with over ten tons each, through steep, slippery, narrow mountain paths with cliffs on both sides. The #TruckOfLife was able to navigate through the most critical, steep, and slippery areas. These maneuvers can be described as “extreme.”
Over the past 15 days, villagers, assisted by teams from Fair Future and the Kawan Baik Foundation, have built four 5000-liter ferrocement reservoirs, two double sanitary facilities, renovated an old one that the villagers never completed, dug two safety tanks, buried over 1000 meters of pipes, and organized the work of 30 to 50 people per day, mostly villagers who, along with us, are learning new things, new construction techniques, and communication skills.
We have begun drilling deep in an area where humans may have never ventured. To do this, we had to transport our drilling machine to the site, which is extremely complicated as it weighs between 5 and 6 tons. It was a government truck that kindly transported it for us. Then, we had to manually move the machine over just over 300 meters, uphill, on slippery terrain. Today, we are over 67 meters deep, and it will take us another two weeks of work for drilling, but we lack water.
I must thank all the villagers and the entire community that assists the teams from Fair Future and the Kawan Baik Foundation on-site. The incredible logistics have led to learning programs: our teams prepare healthy meals for everyone, and Susanti and Ayu are in charge of that. They are assisted by village women who are learning what it means to eat healthily with Ayu and Susanti.
Every day, there are about 50 of us working on the sites. Rain or shine, in the scorching sun that burns us, in the mud. As I mentioned earlier, we currently have neither electricity nor water nor toilets. But things are changing because we are building a real future for this region and for the school and its 78 children aged 6 to 12.
The Truck of Life makes the journey from Rumah Kambera Base Camp to Laindatang and back every day. It leaves Laindatang in the evening and returns to the site in the morning, bringing materials, medicines, food, vegetables, over 60 liters of drinking water for our teams on-site, and the immense 20k Watt PowerBank for light, charging our tools, cameras, mobile phones, lamps, etc… It is indeed the only vehicle that can pass through, in almost any conditions. However, the conditions are, as I mentioned, dangerous and challenging for vehicles.
We still have two months of work ahead, including a month of educational activities focusing on clean water and healthy sanitary installations. We have organized training sessions on the following topics: learning to cook healthily for families, eating better for children, learning to wash hands and take care of oneself, avoiding getting sick, and how to fight infectious diseases through clean water, healthy sanitation, and good nutrition.
We will also establish a real vegetable garden next to the Laindatang school, following the community garden principle. The goal is to improve health and, if possible, create an economic activity for the village.
Let us thank all the people who make this work possible in one of the poorest regions in the world, where the rate of child malnutrition and water-related diseases is the highest in Indonesia, if not the world.
Alex Wettstein – Fair Future Foundation medico-social camp in East Sumba – Rumah Kambera, Lambanapu – The 3rd of March 2024
Laindatang’s Three-Week Metamorphosis Captured Through Photography
