LIVING WATER PROGRAM FOR INDONESIA

`Living Waters’ is the perfect name for our Biosand water-filter program, providing clean water to poverty-stricken Indonesian families thirsting for a better way of life.

What is the need?

The main source of water for many rural Indonesian families is from polluted wells or ponds that harbour many water-borne diseases.

With no access to clean water, some people have to pay to buy clean water from a distant spring – but for the average person, the distance is too great and the cost far beyond what they can afford.

Disease-ridden water puts lives at risk, and keeps people trapped in a cycle of poverty and despair. Clean water is either non-existent or comes at too high a cost.

How do we help?

We educate villagers on the concept of clean water and health, and install water filters to help provide safe-to-drink water.

By 2007, Samaritan’s Purse has installed about 3500 water filters throughout East, West and Central Java.

Every year more and more villagers see the benefit of better health through cleaner water, and ask to have water filters for their families.

Our project’s success can be measured by the annual decrease in water-borne diseases in our target areas.

In East Java, for example, we are working to help a village that has two schools and an orphanage, but no access to clean water. Their main source of water is from a manmade pond that’s been stagnant for years. While we can’t restore an orphan’s parents, we can show them the love of Christ through the simple act of providing them with clean drinking water (living water), showing them that they are valuable to us and to God.

How our Clean Water for Life project is impacting people:

A villager:
A villager at Cilacap, Central Java says: “This filter is very useful. Before using it, our water was yellowish, not fresh, and caused itching on my body. Now the water is clean, fresh – and no more itching! I can drink the water directly from the filter. I don’t need to buy drink-water anymore. Amazingly, I got cured from coughing; I usually get a cough easily.”

Our team was able to produce 50 filters for families in this village, home to about 700 households. The production took place at Mr. J’s house. He gratefully invited our team to stay in his home, and his wife cooked our meals during the project. 

A pastor’s wife:
A pastor’s wife in a village in Central Java reports that she was “really blessed by the filter”. Before they got the filter, she “suffered from itching all over her body almost everyday”. But now, since she uses the water from the filter for bathing, she’s been “free from itching”. She adds that the new clean water makes it easier for her to wash and get her clothes clean, “especially the white ones!”

Every year, they host a mission team from Jakarta or other countries who stay for sometime in the village to help them. These teams have also been very thankful for the filter which provides them clean water for bathing and washing their clothes. They were happy to use this clean water from the filter, even though they have to queue to get it.

Grateful children:
Another family in this same village who received a water filter are “very thankful”. Even though the water from their well is dirty, when they pour it into the filter, it becomes clean and hygienic. They use the water for daily activities such as washing and showering.

A Muslim leader:
A Muslim leader in East Java, who is also the founder and head of an orphanage and boarding school there, had this to say after we installed a water filter in his house in January 2006 as a model for his village: “I am so happy and thankful having this filter because the result is so clean and fresh. All my students can drink the water directly without it being boiled. Even my neighbours can feel the blessing, as they take the water from the filter to their homes for drinking. Not only that, some people who live about 15 km away from here also come to my house with 8-litre containers to take the water home every week.”

In May 2006, we set up a production site for 125 filters at the leader’s home and at the Boarding School. All of his students were joyfully working hand-in-hand with us to produce the filters and wash the sand it uses. All of the team who worked there had a great time working among them, even though we have different background and religion.

Another Muslim leader:
Another Muslim leader who heads a different local Boarding School came specially to thank the Samaritan’s Purse team “for the water filter that has become such a blessing to their students”.

Muslim students:
When we installed another filter nearby, “the students were so enthusiastic that they could not wait to drink the water that ran so clear and clean from the filter!” They were overjoyed because “the taste of the water was really different from the water from their well”.