USAID / Water / Indonesia - diarrheal disease reduction

USAID helps improve clean water, sanitation

Fri, 01/22/2010 2:27 PM

JAKARTA: USAID has helped Indonesia reduce diarrhea in communities where clean water and sanitation practices were adopted, the agency said in a release Wednesday.

USAID said the number of people suffering from the often water-borne illness dropped from 18.3 percent in February 2007 to 7.7 percent in June 2009, in Aceh, North Sumatra, West Java, Yogyakarta, Central Java, East Java, Jakarta and Papua.

Mission Director Walter North noted that USAID's Environmental Services Program (ESP) made a large contribution to the improvement of better health through improving water resource management and expanding access to clean water and sanitation services.

The ESP was a sixty-four month program that worked with the government, private sector, NGOs, community groups and other stakeholders to promote better health through improved water resource management and expanding access to clean water and sanitation services.

"Unsafe drinking water is the major cause of diarrhea and the second leading killer of children under five.

"Three out of every ten Indonesians suffer from water-borne illnesses," North said.