Clear water revival

Balance: Pte Chris Bone checks the pH level of the purified water at the water purification plant located at Banda Aceh. Photo by AB Phil Cullinan, 1JPAU

Cheer: An Acehenese boy takes clean drinking water from a soldier. Photo by Cpl Belinda Mepham, 1JPAU

By Cpl Cameron Jamieson

THE battle to save lives does not start and end in a hospital.

Outside the clinical boundaries is another battlefront where Australian engineers are fighting hard to save lives by providing safe drinking water in Banda Aceh.

The Boxing Day tsunami that devastated much of Banda Aceh disrupted and polluted the city’s sources of drinking water.

The severity of the water problem was identified quickly, and among the first Australian troops to arrive in the ruined city was 1CER team that immediately went to work with their water purification unit beside the Aceh River.

Despite having to witness Indonesian Armed Forces personnel haul up to 1000 bodies a day out of the river beside them, the engineers kept doggedly at their task until fresh personnel from Australia relieved them.

There are now three water purification units working across Banda Aceh, and to date they have supplied over 2.5 million litres of potable water.

Sgt Glen Donaldson, of 21 Const Sqn, said the main problem for the engineers was the supply of suitable water to purify.

“At the moment our system located at the civilian hospital is producing about 160,000 litres per day, and that’s distributed to the locals and the two field hospitals,” he said.

“We can produce 20,000 litres per hour, but we are drawing from a bore that can only provide 12,000 litres per hour, so we are matching the source.”

The other two sites have also had their share of problems in maintaining a supply of water to draw from, but the engineers are determined to keep providing safe drinking water for as long as their services are needed.

Spr Trevor Skoda, also of 21 Const Sqn, said the local people had been both cooperative and grateful for the unit’s efforts.

“I haven’t met a sour face yet,” he said.

“They’re always friendly and say ‘thank you’.

“When we first opened the water point to the locals they asked ‘can you drink it?’

“After we told them it was safe there were big smiles all around and you could see the look of relief on their faces.”