Water Environment Improvement for Rural Areas in Developing Countries through Intensive Use of the Existing Water Resources

Securing safe water is an urgent issue to be solved in rural societies in developing countries. Conventional water environment improvement through public works, putting priority on development of water resources, such as construction of dams, well digging, etc., has shown successful results in one hand. However, on the other hand, they generally require large investment cost, long time for administrative process. In addition, inequity of benefit to residents is associated as a potential problem. Meanwhile, intensive use of the existing water resources, with cheap cost and simple technologies, can be effective alternative measures against water shortage where development of water resources is restricted. From the viewpoint, the Study is being conducted to propose water environment improvement through intensive use of the existing water resources. According to the results of the on-site survey conducted in the West Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia, it was found out that water environment in the province is deteriorating due to development of beef cattle raising and deforestation. In this paper, the results of the on-site survey are summarized and the water environment improvement plan to mitigate the present status is presented.