Our experiences helping villagers to improving their water supplies in East Timor

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1 Our experiences helping villagers to improving their water supplies in East Timor East Timor is one of the 10 poorest countries in the world, a young nation of a little over 1 million people only 600 km away from Australia s shores. Our experiences there led us to ponder what development is appropriate and sustainable for this tiny, mountainous country of mainly subsistence villages. My wife Ima and I lived in village huts for a few weeks while helping the people to install shallow bores, pumps and windmills. Hundreds of water supplies were destroyed by the Indonesian militias before they left in Children and women now have to cart all of their water from springs, up to a kilometre or more up steep slopes. We found village life basic but not unhealthy as we ate well and the woven bamboo hut we stayed in was better than most, having a concrete floor, iron roof and squat toilet nearby. Communication was the most difficult aspect as we knew no Tetum and they had no English; many spoke Portuguese as a second language but that didn t help us much. Despite the trials we felt privileged that the villagers willingly shared their life with us. We will never forget their good humour and hospitality, or the faces of the little children who struggled up the hills with 5 L containers of water, making a game of it wherever possible. We were always aware that the 5 10 L of water we used for our tub baths and cups of tea had to be brought this way, metres up 30 m steep slopes on paths that are dusty in the dry season and would be slippery in the wet. Five bores, two equipped with hand pumps and one with a windmill were successfully installed at the coastal village of Lautem by a Rotary team from Perth, Western Australia in I was fortunate in working with this team for 10 days. After this my wife and I went with Peter Stewart and Timorese interpreter Domingos De Olivera to attempt a more difficult project at Funar village in the highlands. This project was funded by the tireless work of Peter, his wife Marya and supporters of the Christian Centre for Social Action in Perth. They have sent three containers with educational equipment, furniture and 4 windmills to Timor over the past 3 years. The original vision was to provide a safe, more accessible water supply for the village, especially the school children who have to carry water for drinking and toilets to the school. With the help of several village men, I sank a bore 8 m to water, ran a pipe to a tank at the school and erected a windmill but we were unable to get it operating as two small parts were the wrong size and not available in Timor. However, we remain strong in our vision of water for Funar and will return to see it completed. Yes, villagers have lived this sustainable life, with its 10-15% infant mortality for hundreds of years. In a community and perhaps spiritual sense they are richer and happier than we are. Their way of life is physically harder and much simpler than ours but has proved sustainable over many centuries. We cannot say the same for Australia s way of life and I certainly don t want to see them develop as we have, into an overdeveloped nation with huge cites dominated by cars and asphalt. But the lack of safe easily accessible water has cruel consequences for the Timor villagers and they have asked for help in providing better water supplies. That is reason enough for us to help in any way we can to that end. Ben Rose October 2009

2 Satellite image showing approximate location of the pipeline from windmill to school at Funar village. The mill lifts the water from about 7 m depth then pushes it 250 m along a 32 mm diameter pipeline which traverses a hillside spur about 10 m above ground level (agl) at the mill, to the tank at the schoolhouse. The site is about 4,300 ft above sea level.

3 There were plenty of hands to help dig this bore (10 m depth) downhill of the teacher s residence at Funar. There is a spring in the valley below the banana tree. Mill components were carried down to the site

4 Short timbers from a recycled pallet were used to make formwork for the tank stand Ima showing the completed tank stand

5 Mill tower being carried in while 8 m auger extended with wooden pole is used on the bore Elephant foot holes dug for mill legs, to 0.85 m with flat stones placed in the bottom

6 She s finally up; what a relief!

7 The assembled mill (about 250 kg including tower and fan) was first lifted onto the top part of the bomba rig frame. This was most precarious. The windmill erected on a steep hillside about 25 m from the existing water supply tank fed by spring in the treed gully, outside right of the picture. Tools were taken in (450 m) by wheelbarrow and out twice per day

8 Assembled compensator pump, which pushes water along pipeline with bore pump beneath the T assembly (lifts water 8 m from bore). The wrong clamp and wrong spacer / joiners inside the pump prevented activation of the system

9 Bomba rig in use at Lautem, thatched bamboo village huts in background India pump installed in 2008 by Byford Rotary Club supplies clean water from 11 m deep well to Laotem School and nearby village huts.

10 Alf from Byford Rotary working with villagers sinking bore at Laotem Balancing 8 metres of auger in a sea breeze can be a bit hairy but Jose can handle it!

11 Saturnino, a Funar villager who was learning English who volunteered to be interpreter, walking along the filled pipeline trench