Water

Water

You would think that a city that suffers up to 150 inches of rain per year, would not have the audacity to complain about a lack of water. But, water is a big issue here. There is actually a reservoir here that plumbs water to a select few houses and they pay a pretty premium for that service, but the vast majority of the populous are left to their own devices.

For most homes, the solution is simple, dig a hole deep enough to pass through the water table and scoop the water out with a bucket on a length of rope. Not sure of the translation, but they call it a ‘well’. For most homes, this only involves digging down ten meters or less and to be perfectly honest, I would sooner be served with well water than water from the reservoir, which also serves as a human toilet and dumping ground. At least well water has been filtered through the ground.

The problem on the kampong where I live, is that we are on top of a hill, which means that the water table is a bit deeper than usual. The landlord of the house that I live in, had to dig down 60 meters to reach water. I don’t have to take his word for this fact, the well was serviced two weeks ago and I saw all the pipe work that was brought up.

I am sure he didn’t dig this well himself, there are professional well diggers here who are kept very busy, in a city population in excess of three million. They get paid ‘well’, but this has to be one of the world’s most dangerous professions and it does not need much imagination to figure out why.

For most families in the kampong, paying for such a deep well is out of the question and so they have to adapt and make do. The plastic piping in this image is carrying water. I don’t know where from, but I do know that the friction losses from the length of the pipe means that it can take an hour to fill a five liter pan.

When it rains, which is often, the cry goes out, “Ujang”! Women come running out of the houses with buckets and position them under the eaves, to collect the valuable fluid and every ten minutes, depending on the rainfall, replace the bucket and scurry off with the full one, presumably to fill a large container.

So often, we take for granted the services available to us, that people in countries like Indonesia have to work hard for to provide for themselves. At least Indonesia has the raw materials (rain), just imagine living in a country that has very little rain fall. I know, this is a bit like your Mom saying, “Eat all your food up or I will send it to the starving millions of children”. At the time you were probably thinking, ’Don’t bother, they will only send it back’. The fact is though, that these issues are real, in the year 2014 no less!

Dave