The Water Supply Company Drenthe (WMD) is going to support water works in several places in East-Indonesia in the coming years.

Poorly functioning water companies
The water companies function poorly and sometimes not at all. There is no money to renovate and extend the water mains system. Only about 20% of the households is connected up. The plants are badly maintained. Filters are not replaced on time, resulting in poor quality water. Just like the valves through which 60 to 70% of the water leaks away. The business operations are also inefficient. There is one employee per 80 connections, in the Netherlands there is one employee per 1000 connections.

Bottled water
The population has to contend with a scarcity of clean drinking water. The surface water is often contaminated. This is the cause of many diseases. The population is forced to buy expensive bottled water. The cost of this is sometimes more than 10% of their income. The PET bottles are a serious environmental problem.

Urgently needed improvements
With the Dutch support we can tackle the urgently needed improvements to the drinking water supply. This guarantees the supply of drinking water to the present customers, which makes them more inclined to pay the water bill. As soon as the renovations of the infrastructure have been completed and the leaks in the mains system have been repaired, the water companies can work on more connections.

Funding
The Dutch government contributes 7.5 million euros in development aid to the costs of the project. The WMD has reserved 3.4 million euros for the project. These amounts are intended to fund the first five years. The programme “partners for water” facilitates the funding.