Clean flowing water minimises risk of devastating illnesses

Isais Martins is about to experience the highlight of his day as he is wheeled 20 metres along a smooth concrete path from his front door to a new water tap.

"He gets so excited about his morning wash," says his mother Juliana, "even when the water is cold."

Isais, 21, has been in a wheelchair since he was four, the result of a severe illness that included diarrhea and vomiting. Juliana, now 56, has lost five of her nine children. One survived until six-years-old, but most died within a few months of their birth.

Juliana thanks God that at least Isais survived, to be joined two years later by their ninth child, Paulino. She lost her children during the occupation of Timor-Leste by Indonesian forces. Fighting often took place in the Aileu hills where they live, an hour-and-a-half from the capital Dili. Food and medical resources were scarce.

Today, Juliana’s husband Julião, a farmer, tends plots of cassava, taro, potatoes, maize, bananas, and papaya near their home in Faularan village. Two married daughters, Isabel and Anasela, have moved away but between them have given Juliana and Julião 5 grandchildren.

Early in 2014, World Vision began talking to the villagers about a new system to deliver clean, fresh water, along with a sanitation system to improve hygiene and minimize the risk of illnesses that have devastated Juliana’s family.

The family then used a long section of bamboo guttering to collect water from the roof during the rainy season. In the dry season, Juliana went to the nearest river, a 1½-hour-round trip, twice a day, with a plastic ‘jerry can’ in each hand and three on her back, trudging home with 15 litres of precious water.

We had to leave our disabled son by himself. The big difference the new water tap has made for us- we now have more time for him.

Constantly caring for Isais had also meant she could rarely find time to sell surplus vegetables or chat to other women at the local market 200 metres from their home.

The new village water system funded by Australian Aid opened on 27 June has 11 taps; nine communal, and two located just outside the homes of families with disabled members. World Vision provided materials such as the taps and pipes, and village members provided the labour. "I learnt a lot helping with the building," Paulino says.

Juliana and Julião bought two extra bags of cement and with the help of other people in the village, built the path from their front door to their own tap. Isais also has his own toilet. Twenty communal composting toilets are now spread around the village, the result of the sanitation side of the project.

At the water and sanitation system opening ceremony, the village was proudly declared ‘defecation free’. It was part of an initiative that lessens the risk of women such as Juliana losing their babies or having them severely disabled by illness.