Clean Water Lightens Women's Load By Jason Rush

Deep in the hills of southern Nias, an hour’s trek from the nearest country road, lies the village of Onohondro. For centuries, the task of carrying bucket loads of water from well to home has fallen on the shoulders of the village's women.

Herminwati Hondro and other women in the village would make a daily one kilometer roundtrip journey on foot, over steep, craggy terrain, and could only carry a limited amount of water to their homes.

"Between drinking, cooking, bathing and washing dishes, there wasn't much water to go around, so household sanitation was quite poor," says Rizal Matondang, of ADB's Earthquake and Tsunami Emergency Sector Project in Nias and Aceh.

Today the people of Onohondro only have to seep outside their door for clean, safe water.

"Before the new water system, we could only use a small amount of water, but now we can use all that we need," says Ms. Hondro.

"I'm so happy the water is closer to my home. It's made things much easier. Plus, before the water wasn't always clean. This water is better."

In the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and 2005 Nias earthquake, ADB has provided over US$ 20 million for the construction and rehabilitation of water and sanitation services in 400 villages in Nias and Aceh. Six clean water taps for the 300 families residing in Onohondro.

Before the new water system, poor sanitation was causing numerous cases of skins disease and frequent bouts of diarrhea – one of the leading killers of young children in Indonesia and other parts of the developing world.

"The children used to get diarrhea a lot," says Ms. Hondro. "I see a difference now."

The ADB-supported clean water program, carried out in cooperation with Indonesia's reconstruction and rehabilitation agency – Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi (BRR), has also provided communities with better sanitation facilities and support for hygiene promotion.

"We spent a lot of time speaking with community members from the very beginning of the project to get them directly involved," says ADB's Matondang. "Now families have much healthier lifestyles, and children's health is improving."

The revolution in the village, brought about by just six water taps, is real. No longer worried about their children's health, and with the village on its way to recovery from the 2005 earthquake, the women of Onohondro are living better lives.