The spirit of ‘gotong-royong’ by the villagers during construction works

Rural Health Improvement Scheme

Realising the need to tackle these problems, the Sarawak Medical and Health Department embarked on a Rural Health Improvement Scheme Programme which was aimed to improve sanitation in the rural villages through the practice of personal hygiene, construction of latrines, general cleaning of compounds, drainage and fencing of animals.

Initially, there was much resistance from the villagers, as they do not see the need to change their traditional way of life. In 1967 the idea of providing water supply as an incentive to do other sanitary improvements was tried and proved to be successful as the need for an easily available water supply is universal. Thus it came into being the Rural Water Supply Programme pioneered by the Sarawak Medical and Health Department.

Assistance from UNICEF

The United Nations International Children Educational Fund [UNICEF] gave much assistance to this programme during its infancy period.

From 1966 to 1971, a Sanitary Engineer from the World Health Organization (WHO) was assigned to Sarawak to assist in not only the technical aspects of the job but also in planning, training, implementation and management of the programme as a whole.

Pipeline criss-crossing the entire length from source to the kampung

Basically, the objectives of any rural water-supply system will include the following:

(a) to supply safe and wholesome water to the users, whether these constitute a family, a group of families, or a community

(b) to supply water in adequate quantities; and

(c) to make water readily and conveniently available to the users, in order to encourage personal and household hygiene.

The topography of the State provided the classification of the population structure into two categories - the inland villages and the coastal villages. This by itself determined the types of rural water supply systems to be provided for and installed in the villages.

Sources of water supply and types of systems

The quantity and quality of water supply depended on its source that can be categorized as;

(a) Surface water such as rivers, streams and lakes.

(b) Underground water, i.e., springs and wells.

(c) Atmospheric water, e.g., rain

Looking at the available sources of water supply in the State, the types of systems that were put up for the rural population since the inception of the programme are:

(i) Gravity feed piped-water system – river or spring water on the high ground is piped to the village. Flow in the pipe is due to the force of gravity. Generally, if the source is well protected from contamination, treatment will not be required, except for emergency chlorination. The water quality is usually clean and the supply time 24 hours a day.

(ii) Pumped piped water supply system – water from rivers/springs or wells in the low area are lifted up by mechanical pumps to elevated storage tanks. The water is then piped to the household. This system involves high operating and maintenance costs.

(iii) Hydraulic Ram piped water supply system – similar to the pumped piped water supply system, except that a hydraulic ram is used to lift the water to an elevated storage tank. However, water should be available in abundant quantities since the ram will lift only 1/7 to 1/10 of the water delivered to it (depending on the height the water is to be lifted). The remaining water is used to provide the driving force for the ram. A good ram will pump water for a substantial period of time without any fuel or electricity with very little maintenance. This system requires a lot of technical considerations to be fully operational and as such is very expensive to install.

(iv) Sanitary well water supply – a sanitary well is usually a dug well with concrete lining. Well water supply system is considered appropriate when the community is so dispersed or where there are no other suitable surface sources to implement community water supply system. It is covered and equipped with a hand operated shallow-well lift and force pump. This system is cheap in term of construction cost with low maintenance.

(v) Rain water supply system – Rain water supply is considered for areas where no other suitable sources are available. Rainwater is collected from the roof run-off and stored in appropriate water tanks. Due to the cost incurred, the rainwater storage tanks are designed to hold sufficient water for direct consumption purposes only. The effectiveness of this system depended very much on rainfall pattern (quantity, frequency and annual pattern).

The heavily forested hilly terrain interspersed with crystal clear flowing waters in the upper and inland areas of the State provided an ideal setting for the construction of a water supply system. Endowed with this gift of nature, most of the rural inland villages have a gravity feed water supply piped to their houses/homes.

Waterfall provides a good source for a gravity feed water supply system

Environmental Consideration

Every village in the State requires a safe and clean water supply. However, provision of water supply per se without the concomitant improvement in environmental sanitation does not show as much impact on health as the two together. Thus it is the Department’s policy that before a water supply system is to be installed, latrines will have to be built, drains to be dug and the general cleaning up of the village completed.

A Village Health Committee is set up to motivate and involve the active participation of the villagers in the health improvement projects. The Medical and Health Department is fully aware that it is not a water supply department. Moreover, it is cognizant of the fact that the possibility of providing treated water supply to these rural villages is very remote in view of the huge capital outlay to construct the infrastructure.

The provision of the so-called rural water supply project is more of a health incentive towards the improvement of environmental and personal health of the rural population. However, notwith-standing its status, the imple-mentation of any rural water supply project does not forego the technical considerations and engineering aspects of the project.

Feasibility Studies

Though employing simple technology, the fundamentals and elements of engineering are not compromised in the making of a gravity feed water supply system. The project is made to last for a period of between fifteen to twenty years.

Thus, before em-barking on this proposal, thorough feasibility studies are undertaken by the ground technical staff [the Health Inspectors and the Rural Health Supervisors]. Site in-vestigations and eva-luations are made to locate the potential source, to measure the flow of the stream or river, marking the potential dam site and pegging of route for the surveying and levelling works to be undertaken.

The information and data gathered from the ground level are forwarded to the District Health Office where the Health Inspector will work out the proposals by drawing the plans, laying out the designs and calculating material and infrastructure costs. The proposals are then sent to the Divisional Health Office for vetting before submission to Headquarters Office in Kuching for final approval.

Approval

A simple resevoir and intake point

Throughout this process no promises were made to the villagers that the proposal would be approved. Should there be technical hindrance to the proposal, the villagers must be prepared to accept alternative water supply system.

Approved projects are made known to the District Health Office which in turn will transmit the message to the villagers. The villagers must be informed of this approval, as they themselves must indicate their willingness to accept the project. It is important that there must be no objections, impediments or disputes by the villagers themselves or others that could obstruct the eventual implementation of the project.

There were cases where the approved projects are put on hold, shelved or shifted to other localities. Much as the Department would like to help in whatever it can, the final say lies with the community and its leaders.

Contribution from the villagers

Though fully government-funded, these projects were rather unique in its implementation process. The villagers were required to make minimal cash contribution. Though met with much resistance initially, it had become a hallmark in the eventual success in the imple-mentation of rural community water supply projects.

The amount collected depended on the villagers themselves and agreed upon by the Department. The rate of RM20.00 per door had become the norm for gravity feed water supply system. Exceptions were made for those of extreme poverty and with financial difficulties.

A Committee which had been given the mandate by the villagers to collect and handle the contribution money determined these cases. The money collected was used to purchase fittings for each household. The Committee together with the representative of the Department would do the purchases.

This amount was minimal and not even enough to purchase all the necessary fittings. The Department had still to subsidise the balance. The purpose of this village contribution was to instil in the mind of the villagers that they were the shareholders in this project.

The ‘convenience’ pipe gravity feed water supply system provides the householder

Gotong Royong

Materials for the approved project were sent from Kuching to the Divisions, from where they are then distributed to the Districts and sub-sequently to the project sites either by land, rivers or even airlifted to the interiors.

The actual implementation of the project was done by the villagers themselves on ‘gotong-royong’ [community participation] basis with technical assistance and supervision by the Health Inspectors and Rural Health Supervisors. This ‘gotong-royong’ spirit gave the villagers a sense of pride and belonging towards the project.

A greater sense of achievement was felt when the project was fully completed and utilised to their satisfaction. Their joy was further manifested in the grand official opening ceremonies by the Ministers or other dignitaries. This was an appreciation to the government for its assistance in providing such an amenity to the people. This was no doubt an effective means of winning the hearts and minds of the people.