Putting clean hands within reach in rural Papua New Guinea

Clean hands are within reach in Western Province, Papua New Guinea, thanks to World Vision! (World Vision / Abbegail Wafi)

Located in South Fly District in Western Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG), is the remote village of Kurinti. The village sits in a low-lying area surrounded by rainforest and only accessible by boat some 70 kilometres up the Pahoturi River. The people of Kurinti depend on hunting, fishing and producing sago as their main food sources.

Like almost half of PNG’s population, the community of Kurinti struggles to access clean water for consumption and to meet their water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) needs, often forced to use unsafe brackish water collected five kilometres away from the Pahoturi River.

But with support from Australia through Water for Women, World Vision PNG is bringing change to the community of Kurinti and others throughout the rural districts of South and Middle Fly in the marginalised region of Western Province. Through the Water for Women WASH Voices for Empowerment (WAVE 2) project, World Vision and partners are improving access to sustainable WASH, especially for women, girls and people with a disability.

Through this project, three 10,000 litre rainwater tanks have now been installed right in the centre of Kurinti village, providing easy water access for all community members. New toilet facilities constructed for boys and for girls at the Kurinti Primary School now enable students to access safely managed sanitation, and two new handpumps connected to boreholes drilled at the school provide water on-site. With clean and accessible drinking water and safe sanitation available, there are less incidences of water-borne illnesses among the children.

“We struggled to collect dirty water from the flooded Pahoturi River that makes us get diarrhea however we now have clean water that World Vision installed, and our children are no longer getting sick.”

- A woman who lives in Kurinti village

These improvements have also sparked healthier hygiene and waste management habits across the village and within households, with training and infrastructure delivered through the project supporting sustainable practices to keep Kurinti clean. “When World Vision installed the rainwater tanks, we improved a lot with having clean homes and we put the rubbish in the dug-out pits,” explains 17-year-old resident Lucy.

Sharing his gratitude for the improvements the project has brought to his village; a young man’s sentiments also reflect an improved understanding and respect for the water and WASH work of women and girls in his community. “Thank you, World Vision, for bringing water to our village, our mothers and sisters do not need to walk to the big river to fetch water,” he said.

Like the community of Kurinti, most of the population of PNG lives in rural areas, many of which are extremely remote and difficult to access. In 2021, PNG was ranked 9th most at risk country to climate change and natural hazards by the World Risk Index, vulnerable to floods, droughts, earthquakes, volcanic activity, tsunamis, and sea-level rise. PNG has also been identified as one of the countries least ready to successfully adapt to climate change.

The Water for Women WAVE 2 project is helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change on inclusive WASH services and systems in South and Middle Fly, where there is limited government knowledge, capacity and resources to plan, prepare and respond to the impacts of climatic events on WASH services and infrastructure. Local-level community WASH structures also have limited capacity and finance.

Building on the productive relationships formed with communities and governments during WAVE 1, which was delivered from 2018 to 2022, WAVE 2 is supporting the rollout of climate-resilient and inclusive WASH policy and service delivery and the integration of climate resilience into WASH planning and implementation in these districts. The WAVE 2 project aims to directly benefit 30,000* people living in South and Middle Fly by the end of 2024, including 10,500 girls and women and 3,000 people with a disability.