WSAA members are supporting a project being undertaken by Balibo House Trust to bring water to the community by replacing piping and installing a pump at a local spring.

Lack of safe water is a major contributor to high deaths rates of children under five in Timor Leste and the community experiences extreme water shortages and the existing damaged pipe is limiting flows.

Water is a scarce resource and many hours are spent collecting and carrying poor quality water to families each day. Providing easily accessible purified water to the town will reduce the burden of water collection, often undertaken by women and children, and remove the need to boil water as well, allowing more time to be dedicated to other activities. The project will see health benefits, community benefits and employment and training for local community members.

Engineers Without Borders will arrive in Balibo imminently and run a training session on the Skyhydrants over a few days. There will be four installed at schools and two in public places. They will be working with local water and sanitation groups to ensure the local community have the skills to manage the infrastructure. 

It is great to see the industry getting behind a project that aligns strongly with our commitment to support and promote the Sustainable Development Goals.

The water utilities supporting the project are:

  • Yarra Valley Water
  • Melbourne Water
  • Water Corporation
  • Gippsland Water
  • East Gippsland Water
  • South East Water
  • Coliban Water
  • Suez
  • South Gippsland Water
  • GVWater
  • MidCoast Water
  • Taswater
  • Wannon Water and
  • WSAA

More updates will be provided as the project progresses.

16 Nov 2021

Sandi Kolbe

Sandi Kolbe

Communications Manager