It is quiet these days in six communities in Lamno District, Aceh Jaya. The water pumps are working and water is flowing, but without pollution, noise, electric bills to pay or expensive gensets to repair or replace.

 

CHF, Americares and the communities of Babah Ie, Kreung Tunong, Meunasah Rayeuk, Meunasah Teutong, Meunasah Teungoh and Rumpet recently celebrated the completion of one gravity flow and five solar powered community water systems with a handover ceremony in Babah Ie. CHF is now teaming up with USAID to expand on this environmentally friendly technology to create healthier environments in several area markets and the community of Pulot in Kecamaten Leupung, Aceh Besar.

All the water systems in the Lamno area, except Babah Ie which is a spring fed gravity flow system, feature 972wp Kyrocera solar arrays that power submersible Lorentz DC pumps. The tough, long-lasting solar panels and low maintenance pumps mean minimal maintenance responsibilities for the Community Water Management Committees. The systems produce enough water during the 11 hours of daily sunlight so that no additional nighttime pumping is necessary. The systems are, however, hybrids meaning they can also operate automatically on PLN grid power should additional water demand need to be met in the future. Households, which each have their own water connection, pay an average of 3000IRP per month towards maintenance, repair and eventual replacement costs. In addition to Americares – the main funding partner – CHF partnered with Unicef, and Norwegian Red Cross in the realization of this innovative and ground breaking project.

This solar technology is now being brought to Banda Aceh’s CHF-built Penayong fish and vegetable and the Daging meat and spice markets as well as Lhoong and Meureudu public markets in Aceh Jaya and Pidie Jaya districts respectively. Here the solar powered water supply will be augmented by rain water harvesting technology. In an area such as Banda Aceh where between 1000 and 2000mm of rain falls annually, this can mean 1 to 2 cubic meters of free rain water for every square meter of catchments surface, a very significant volume of water at no additional operating costs to the market management or vendors. While storage capacity is important, a good design combined with adequate storage means  that the targeted markets have a close to zero cost, maintenance free water access year round.

In addition to these aspects of market improvement, CHFs Healthy Market’s program is promoting the use of safe water use with public awareness campaigns. CHF and Aman Tirta (CCP), a local NGO, launched a safe water campaign on June 28 at the Lam Ateuk market in Aceh Besar. In the coming months the campaign will visit all districts in which CHF is constructing markets. The campaign targets vendors and customers, with an emphasis on safe and clean water within the markets.  For the launch at Lam Ateuk there were approximately 400 people in attendance, and it was supported by a local singing celebrity, Rafli.  CHF and CCP also were on an Aceh radio talk show for the promotion of safe water, to discuss not only the safe water concept but also the concept of healthy and functional markets. The radio station’s demographics extend throughout North Sumatra, and a number of people called in to discuss the topics.  CHF will present topics on the radio each month to promote the Healthy Markets Program, which has been funded by the American Red Cross, AIG Disaster Relief, USAID and AmeriCares. The launching of the radio program marks an effort to not only gain wider recognition of the healthy markets concept, but to engage a wider audience in these issues that affect the entire community. (David Wright)