One of Willoughby Friends of Ossu’s current projects with the people of Ossu is WASH – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for all. In 2018, Friends of Ossu committee members visited Timor-Leste to review the progress on WASH and created this video.
Video of Ossu WASH project
To view the video click on the video below.
Background
In visits by committee members of the Friends of Ossu, teachers showed the committee, that the two high schools were operating without toilet facilities or handwashing even though they had over a thousand students. The village’s clinic is also without running water.
The development aspirations of Timor-Leste cannot be met without access to clean water. The people of Ossu are in need of better water and sanitation and asked the Friends’ committee to help them provide it.
The Friends commissioned a report (below) prepared by WaterAid, an international NGO with a vision for a world where everyone, everywhere has clean water, sanitation and hygiene, and Engineers without Borders, it was identified that all water supplying Ossu was contaminated, causing illness and of high risk to the residents.
Through discussion and community liaison, Willoughby Friends of Ossu developed a three stage plan, Ossu WASH, an international health campaign for Ossu which will deliver, water sanitation infrastructure.
This will have range of benefits for the Ossu community.
- Good sanitation & hygiene = healthier people
- Improves understanding of infectious diseases
- Lowers infant deaths
- Benefits school students
To achieve these benefits new health training, water infrastructure and maintenance will be built and delivered in stages that will provide clean uncontaminated water to the 6000 residents in the village of Ossu.Stage 1
At an approximate cost of $AUD 50,000, Stage 1 of the WASH project will
- repair some of the existing infrastructure – Uaiquirona System Rehabilitation
- provide maintenance training
- provide health and hygiene education through a training of trainers approach (ToT)
About the Stage 1 – Uaiquirona System Rehabilitation
The Uaiquirona spring, located in the Mundo Perdido hills, provides water supply to the northern part of the Ossu community, including the Olokasa and EBC Mundo Perdido schools. It also provides water to 20-50 houses (approximately 300 people). The existing system has many informal connections and leakage points, which require rehabilitation. Works would also include rehabilitation of tanks and provision of distribution lines and tap stands so that the community can access clean water.
Donate
Donate to Friends of Ossu committee member Luke Keighery’s Water for Timor walk to raise funds for the WASH project
WASH Presentation in English and Tetum
Stage 1 Overview of the WaSH Project in English and Tetum language
Project Partners
- Willoughby Friends of Ossu
- WaterAid
- EWB Australia (Engineers Without Borders)
- FHTL (Timor-Leste WaSH NGO)
