Ilustration
Jayapura, 5/3 (Jubi) – About 4,000 residents from Serui Laut, Pasir Putih and Pasir Hitam villages in Yapen Islands regency still lack access to clean water, a Papuan council member said.
“Clean water is an urgent need for people in the three villages. Serui Laut community ( people who live by the sea) get the water from Pasir Hitam village which is across the ocean. They look for water using jerrycans and transport it by boat because there is no source of water,” Erwin Kbarek , member of the Papuan Legislative Council, told tabloidjubi.com on Wednesday (5/3).
He said he found out the problem when he paid a working visit to his electoral region. “People still use the traditional way of taking it. There are no pipes or other modern equipment,” Kbarek said.
He said the Papuan mining department in 2012 conducted a survey to the area, yet until now there have been no efforts to provide easy access to clean water.
In 2013, the Unit for the Acceleration of Development in Papua and West Papua (UP4B) built a water pump near the water source but the water is salty and cannot be used.
“So, people did not feel the benefits. The local community agreed to build reservoirs of springs in Pasir Hitam village and asked for help from relevant agencies. They also wrote to the DPR Papua and the Papua mining department. The letter was with me and will be handed in,” he said.
“Clean water is an urgent need of people in the three villages, even though the villages are only 10 minutes away from the city, ” he added.
Earlier, Chairman of Waropen Community Development and the Environment Foundation , Yulianus Koela, said easy access to clean water one indicator of a prosperous society.
“The government needs to register all villages in Papua that experience water problems. There are still many villagers who complain because there is no water service and no means of transportation that will help them to get clean water every day,” Koela said to tabloidjubi.com a while ago. (Jubi / Arjuna/Tina)
