The Problem with Safe Drinking Water at Schools in Indonesia
In Indonesia, only 21 percent of schools provide safe drinking water to their students. As a result, many school children buy expensive, often sugary drinks, drink contaminated water, or suffer from dehydration. This leads to a myriad of health problems such as diarrhea, stunting, & wasting, all of which have a negative impact on a child’s development. Drinking sugary drinks is a major contributor to childhood obesity, which is a driver of the spike in cases of type two diabetes among children. Type two diabetes is caused by poor diet and is usually rare among children.

Safe Drinking Water for Schools with Nazava

Since 2013, we’ve worked with partners such as Kopernik, Social ImpaKt, and Project Child to provide safe drinking water to schools in underserved communities throughout Indonesia.

In 2021, we conducted a pilot project with Aqua-Danone to provide water filters to 150 schools in Lebak Regency, Banten Province, impacting 35,000 children with safe drinking water. The aim of the pilot project was to measure the extent to which providing water filters to schools affected drinking water habits among school children. We measured the impact by conducting surveys before and after the filters were installed. The results, which were verified by water meter readings, found a fivefold increase in the amount of water consumed per child per day after the filters were installed. Surveys also showed a 98 percent satisfaction rate among the pupils who now preferred to drink Nazava filtered water as opposed to buying drinks from outside.

We worked closely with the local government and school headmasters throughout the design and implementation of the project. The project design and results were shared at the Indonesia WASH Symposium in March 2023 and can be seen here.

Involving local stakeholders in the design of the project proved key to the success and sustainability of the project. Following the pilot project the Lebak Regency Department of Education allocated the necessary funds to provide filters to an additional 420 schools. Schools are able to obtain the filters through either a buy one get one free, or rental program. CSR sponsorships further reduced the out of pocket costs to the schools to just $0.02 per child. Through the sale of carbon credits, we are able to provide maintenance and spare parts for the filters free of charge for life!

The project proved to be a great success that continues to flourish. To date, 432, nearly all of primary schools in Lebak Regency, now provide safe drinking water to their students with a Nazava Water Filter. We have since expanded the project to the neighboring Pandeglang Regency.

50,000 Schools by 2027
Nazava aims to further the success of our school program by providing water filters to 50,000 schools all over Indonesia, impacting 12.5 million children by 2027. This will be funded by a combination of contributions by the schools and local government, the sale of carbon credits, and CSR contributions. We are constantly seeking develop further partnerships with organisations to provide safe drinking water to school children across the Indonesian archipelago!