Strong Camaraderie Helps Water Running in Keutapang

The construction of a water facility has tested the solidarity and camaraderie of Keutapang people. The results are really something to be proud of.

Banda Aceh. Keutapang Village, with a population of 70 families, is one of the communities in Lhoong Aceh Besar District that was a site of Field School activities in 2007. Through the various efforts of the Field School, participants came to realize that their biggest problem was access to clean water. Just imagine, the residents only had easy access to clean water 5 months out of the year, during the rainy season. The rest of the time, the villagers had to carry water more than 500 meters from a well or a river located outside their village just to be able to wash, cook and for drinking.

After tsunami, a non-governmental organization (NGO) once assisted the people there to try to overcome this problem by piping water into their homes from the river. But the piping network didn’t last long, leaks occurred and the pipes were damaged during the plowing of fields because they were not buried deeply enough. This is not to mention, the selfish attitude of some residents, which resulted in unfair water distribution.

Yet, the villagers refused to let any of the constraints stop them from resolving the problem once and for all. Through a meeting facilitated by ESP, they decided to build a more permanent piping network to bring in water from the Lamsujen spring, about five kilometers from their village, before distributing it to the people.

Even though this initially seemed to be an easy task to accomplish-- simply piping in water from the spring to the village – it really was too large in scope for the people of Keutapang. This was not a pessimistic view; the cost alone would reach more than Rp 100 million. Fortunately the villagers had a strong work ethic and a strong sense of gotong royong or mutual help. With the funds scraped together by the villagers themselves, the technical assistance of ESP and donations of materials, construction tools and equipment, and the provision of 150 lengths of pipe from the World Church World Service, the villagers were able to install a piping network from the spring to the village reservoir. ”It is incredible, it turns out that the social solidarity of the village is really strong,” Geusyik, the chief of Keutapang, said proudly.

In order to avoid the new water piping facility from fall into disrepair as previously, the people agreed to set up a maintenance forum, whose task is to collect a monthly fee of Rp. 10,000 from each family to be used to maintain and repair the piping network and related infrastructure. This forum has also set out a number of regulations for the villagers to follow to ensure the sustainability of their water system. ”Residents are forbidden to run their own pipes from the reservoir to their homes, and anyone failing to pay the maintenance fee for more than three months in a row, will have their water service cut off,” Rajali, the elementary school teacher who functions as the Keutapang Water Forum coordinator, explained.

Now, after almost five months, the village’s new water pipe system is contributing steadily to improving the welfare of each and every resident of Keutapang Village. Rajali, who makes a little extra money taking photographs for people in the various communities in the area, is enthusiastic about promoting the success of the Keutapang people in overcoming their water difficulties among the residents of other villages. ”Where there is a will, there is a way. No matter how large the challenge, we can overcome it if we work together,” he says.

Agus Elia Nova & Sari Wattimena, NAD ESP

Strong Camaraderie Helps Water Running in Keutapang