Our final day in Java we are standing in a brilliant green fields of rice paddy ringed by soft blue mountains and white clouds, the sound of running water everywhere.
We're standing on the cement platform that covers the spring that members of this community,dissatisfied with the quality and quantity of state-provided water, have purchased and now run co-operatively. Beside us is the traditional covered spring that the group has left open to provide water for the rest of the community.
The air is fresh, and we feel like we're in paradise. Yet, as Jess points out, this corner of paradise lives with the threat of globalization. If this community had not gone together to buy the spring, it could have been bought by a bottled-water company, and their water supply would continue to be dirty and insufficient. The women would still have to make long treks to a springlike this one to supplement what comes into the house. These kinds of Javanese valleys, with their abundant rain-fed springs, are known to appear on resource maps created by Indonesia's Ministry of Mines and Resources for investors.
One of our hosts opens the water pipe to let us taste the clear, fresh water that runs to the community's homes. Each one has a meter that guages the amount of water the household is billed for.
A photo from our earlier meeting with the community:
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