NTT (part 3)

(Baca Versi Bahasa Indonesia)

GENERAL OVERVIEW
NUTRITION AND FOOD SECURITY

ACCESS TO WATER

NTT is acknowledged in Indonesia for having poor water resources, first because of low and irregular precipitations, and second because of the limited productivity of the local aquifers. Low permeability of the rock composing the soil prevents the storage of underground water. Long periods of drought, followed by suddenly high precipitation, limit the penetration of water in the ground. Erosion, naturally caused by wind and rain, but worsened by on-going deforestation and slash-and-burn agriculture, is also significantly reducing the availability of underground water. Great differences were observed in term of availability of water resources between Alor and TTS, which can be partly explained by litho-logical and hydro-geological variations, but also by variation in rainfall, and different level of investment in water supply infrastructures.

Access to drinking and hygiene water
Sources of water for drinking and hygiene in TTS and Alor are usually the same. Private or public, open shallow wells are the most widespread type of water point (35%), especially in the southern coastal areas. A third of them are unlined. Springs are also very numerous (30%). They are often connected to a pipe water network, since 10% of the people interviewed take water from a tap supplied by gravity from a spring. 10% of the people rely on river as their main drinking water point.

In TTS, low water access for drinking and hygiene is a main concern for the population, even during the rainy season. Water points are very sensitive to change of seasons, easily becoming dry in summer, and turbid in rainy season. Most of the water access indicators are below the emergency Sphere standards:
The average distance between the HH and the water points is 710m not taking into account the often high altitude difference and the steep and dangerous access.
Due to both difficult access and low yield of the water points, it takes in average for the people one hour to go to the water point, to fetch water and to bring it back to their home using jerrycans. Households spend an important amount of time and energy to fetch water everyday, which can be considered as a limiting factor for socio-economical development.
The average quantity of water consumed per person and per day for hygiene and drinking is 14L/p/d. This quantity of water probably decreases a lot in dry season.
Water access indicators in the area visited of Alor are better. However, water in the visited villages of Alor was often available through GFS newly built by the government, which will soon stop functioning due to bad design, absence of maintenance and lack of spare parts. Even with a better access, the quantity of water consumed per person and per day in Alor is as low as in TTS, which is a sign of lack of HH hygiene.

If more water was available, the majority of people (60%) mentioned that the main benefit for them would be an increase of income through development of kitchen gardening, and 15% an increase of the quantity of water used for HH hygiene.

Access to irrigation water and vegetable cultivation
In TTS, very few HH have a kitchen garden. The ones observed were very small (a few m²), and only rain-fed. This absence of irrigation has several reasons:
Scarcity of water resources, often not even sufficient to cover the drinking and hygiene water needs.
Some people are obviously not used to irrigate their field, even when water is available.
Lack of arable land availability around the productive springs, often located far from the villages, and with steep access.

Possibilities to cultivate vegetable during rainy season are not widespread because of the scarcity of arable land: corn being the main source of food for the people, almost all land available during the rainy season is used to grow it. Kitchen gardens in the visited areas of Alor are slightly more numerous than in TTS, but they were in general far bigger. If a majority of them are still rain-fed, irrigation is also significant. However, it was observed in the villages of the south coast that even if water was available from river or wells nearby houses, very few vegetable could be grown, due to the bad quality of soil, bad chemical/physical property of the underground water and a lack of knowledge of the people regarding vegetable cultivation.

Drinking water for cattle.
Households usually have a few chickens and pigs, and goats for the richest. In TTS, cows can also be found, which is very rare in Alor. A significant quantity of the water resources and population’s physical energy is hence used to fetch water for their cattle, and the scarcity of water in summer was often presented by the villagers as a limiting factor for cattle breeding development.

Planned water and sanitation program in TTS and Alor in the coming years
A significant number of water and sanitation projects are planned to be implemented by various actors the in the coming years. For example, two to five Gravity Fed Systems projects will be financed by PPK for the coming years in each of the two districts. A new World Bank funded project, called PAMSIMAS, has started in January 2007, and plan to cover tens of villages in TTS (Alor is also targeted, but the project seems to experience delays there). The GTZ project “Pro-Air” plans the construction of 15 pipe networks in TTS before 2008, and 6 in Alor.

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Writer : FoodSec and Watsan Department
Editor : Erma Maghfiroh
Translator : Erma Maghfiroh