Local practice on infusion system to reduce risk of water scarcity in

The “State of DRR at the Local Level” A 2015 Report on the Patterns of Disaster Risk Reduction Actions at Local Level

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Local practice on infusion system to reduce risk of water

scarcity in Timur Tengah Utara (TTU) district:

A case study on Child-centred Climate Change Adaptation

project of Plan Indonesia

[Ida Ngurah]

[Plan Indonesia]

[[email protected] ]

[Abstract]

Due to increasing scarcity of water, the conventional irrigation methods are slowly being replaced with

water infusion system, which is being operated manually. Infusion system run similar design irrigation

with manual drip irrigation. This paper is developed with purpose to share and promote local practice

in dealing with water scarcity due to its natural climatic condition. The infuse system practice on this

paper is drawn from good practice implemented in TTU district, particularly in Plan Indonesia’s Child-

centred Climate Change Adaptation (4CA) project, funded by Australian Aid. Exposure of water

scarcity in TTU district, Nusa Tenggara Province (NTT) occurs due to its semi arid climatic and

topography condition. Detailed information on this paper was collected by direct survey and in-depth

interview in local language, with the farmers who practiced and utilized infuse system in Banain C

village, TTU district. The water infusion system is only implemented by two farmers in the project

area, thus information of the practice was gathered from them as the main respondents. Information

gathered was recorded and analyzed in qualitative approach. Local practice, in scope of Disaster Risk

Reduction (DRR) and adaptation to climate change, such an infuse system would minimize the

exposure and risk of water scarcity in farming sector. Infuse system has similar application with

manual drip irrigation system in agriculture which water enters into the soil through small emitters to

keep soil moist and water stress in the root zone does not generally occur and plants therefore use

water more efficiently. Local old practices might be are still relevant and effective per current period to

deal with hazard. Though the exposure of the hazard has been worsening by another factor such as

climate change, the old practices are still useful and resulting a great impact, to save more time, save

water, and human labour. The sustainable livelihood as one goal, therefore, can be achieved.

Keywords: farming, drip irrigation, dry season, local material, small scale technology

mailto:[email protected]


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1 Introduction Nowadays, due to increasing water scarcity, the conventional irrigation methods are slowly being

replaced with water infusions system maintaining by manual operation. Infuse system run similar

design irrigation with manual drip irrigation. Drip irrigation has been widely studied and concluded

giving higher productivity of mandarin fruit crops with automatic drip system in Nagpur (Shirgure

2012), tress and vegetables in Egypt (Ghani-Monsour and others 2010), winter wheat in semi-arid

region (Kharrou and others 2011), tomato plants (de Matos Pires and others 2011), apple tree in hilly

area (Tanasescu and Paltineanu 2004), sesame plants (Kassab and others 2005).

Drip irrigation consists in slow and controlled administration of water in the area of the root system of

the plants and is considered to be one of the variants of localized irrigation. Water is distributed in a

uniform and slow manner, drop by drop, in a quantity and with a frequency that depend on the needs

of the plant.

This paper is developed with purpose to share and promote local practice in dealing with water

scarcity due to its natural climatic condition. In NTT province especially in TTU district, good practices

in agriculture sector to support small scale DRR is not widely studied, particularly in small holder

farmers in remote area. The fact that this initiative is old practice by old people due to difficulty

fetching and bringing water to their farm located on hilly side. Yet it has been long forgotten and

recently came out and identified from project experiences and current situation of water scarcity.

Water scarcity that is added by mismanagement of water supply may lead to drought condition, is

main hazard in semi-arid area such as TTU district, in NTT province in Indonesia. While people’s main

livelihood is agriculture, reducing vulnerability and increasing adaptive capacity in that livelihood

sector becomes urgent need to build people resiliency in dealing with the particular hazard.

In addition, convergence between DRR and CCA is relatively new topic for community and wider

audience in TTU. The unfamiliarity of people in TTU regarding this concept is because of majority of

natural disaster incident in this particular district is considered as a small scale disaster. Therefore,

people tend to believe and accept that situation as a “normal” one. Developing infuse system for plant

is also relatively new in the respective area, triggered by existing hazard of water scarcity and lack

support to develop advance agricultural system. Simple infuse system might be one good practices

for people from other regions with same hazard, using material available locally such as bamboo, to

be replicated or scaled up.

2 Research design The infuse system practice on this paper is drawn from good practice implemented in TTU district,

particularly in one project location of Plan Indonesia’s Child Centered Climate Change Adaptation

(4CA), funded by Australian Aid. 4CA is a model builds on Plan’s child-centred community

development (CCCD) approach and child-centred disaster risk reduction approach (CC-DRR),

bringing them together to work more specifically in contexts where climate change is impacting on

children, young people and their communities.

The project is an innovative approach to climate change adaptation as it fosters the agency of

children and youth, in groups and as individuals, to work towards making their lives safer and their

communities more resilient to climate change and related disasters. It applies strategies such as

awareness raising, capacity building, group formation, institutional development, research and

advocacy across a range of arenas.


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Detailed information on this paper was collected by direct survey and in-depth interview in local

language, with two farmers who are implementing the infuse system in Banain C village, TTU district,

NTT province, Indonesia. In-depth interview was done by Plan’s local staff in TTU. The conducive and

in trust relationship between interviewer and interviewee during in-depth interview is strongly

recommended and affected the extent of information gathered. The infuse system is only

implemented by two farmers in the project area, thus information of the practice was gathered only

from both of them

There are 14 basic questions used to gather information, further elaborated during the process of

interview. Information gathered was recorded and analysed in qualitative approach. Observations are

developed into preliminary descriptive and interpretive categories based on evidence presented in the

recording transcript, literature review, and the theory or conceptual framework used to guide the

research.

3 Findings

3.1. Results from in-depth interviews

Kau and Metan are the two farmers who are implementing the infusion system in Banain C village,

TTU district. Both of them were inspired to develop infuse system for breadfruit tree supplied by Plan

Indonesia in 2011. Few years back, Plan Indonesia provided people in TTU a sandalwood tree as part

of agriculture project in child-centred development program, yet it failed to grow due to water scarcity.

In 2012, learning from that failure and referring back to old people practice, Kau and Metan tried to

follow that practice and develop water infusion system in their new trees. “Old people likes to chew

betel leaves, yet the land condition is dry and water is difficult to find, they put bamboo tube with small

emitter around the betel tree” says Kau. In their village, both Kau and Metan are considered as low

level educated people with limited access to information sources because they are leaving in the

remote and less developed village.

The motivation of Kau is very simple, he just wanted to let his new trees can be well grown, saving

more water, and saving more time to watering. Meanwhile for Metan, she is motivated after seeing

trees in Kau’s land that watered using infuse system are well grown. She followed the successful

practice in her own land, installing infuse system in various kind of trees she planted. “I saw Kau’s

trees are well grown and he only allocate little time and water to make it happens” says Metan. The

practice is also motivated by difficulty to fetch water and to gain economic benefits that they can get

from the trees in the coming years. Breadfruit can be used as primary food for local people, beside

rice and corn.

Slow onset disaster which is also affected by climate condition like drought is well experienced by

most people in TTU. According to Kau “during dry season, it is really hard for us to find water even for

domestic purposes. It makes us hardly paying attention to our trees at farm or garden”. “By using

infuse system we only fetch water once a month and fill it in the bamboo tube and our trees can grow

more fertile, rather than watering trees each day especially during dry season” he added.

Furthermore, Kau and Metan also admit that by using water infusion system in their farm, they can

have more time to do other works and earn money.

The promotion of infuse system has been done by Kau and Metan to other farmers in their village,

through existing community meetings. However, since it is considered as new technology in the

village, it takes time to convince other people to use and / or replicate it. For Kau and Metan

themselves, infuse system is also need to be installed into all other trees in their own farm. The infuse

system also can be replicated in large scale, with some modifications and improvements.


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The advantage of using infuse system mentioned by interviewees that they still can do farming during

long dry season. Most people of productive ages in TTU during dry season are diverting their

livelihood from agriculture into other sectors such as motorbike taxi or migrating to other areas as

unskilled labour. With the infuse system technology, Metan able to proof and admit the advantage of

it. “We still do farming even we lack of water for domestic purposes every day. We also do not need to

go to big city to earn money to buy food for our family” says Metan

In addition, Kau explained that making infuse system is not such difficult. Two layers bamboo length

one metre then make small holes as its emitter. To regulate the water flow, holes can be sealed by

thin wood sticks. Holes can be made 15 cm from each top and bottom of bamboo tube. Install the

tube near the tree, tighten by small rope and cover root with leaves to maintain the soil moisture. One

infuse bamboo can be filled by one litre of water and can sustain for watering one plant for one month.

Kau and Metan currently applied this bamboo infusion each in their 20 breadfruit plants in their own

farm, as initial trial. Infuse bamboo can be installed in a tree after three months it is being planted.

Kau and Metan do not realize that they have contributed to DRR with their utilization of local practice

on water infusion system, as DRR is still a complex concept to be understood by people in TTU. They

mentioned that infuse system is done to keep farming during long dry season period, therefore they

do not have to migrate to big city and have other food item beside rice and corn to eat. Living in TTU

during a long dry season is considered as hard life and dependency of people to external aid from

government’s food support program is relatively high on this particular period. And this situation is

occurred every year.

Yet, this infuse system currently only has been installed in their breadfruit plants. Current limitation of

infuse water in TTU District is that it has not been applied in other planted commodity such as rice

and corn. Water infusion system using local material like bamboo in those commodities can be not

easy for people in TTU District, therefore deeper knowledge on irrigation water supply and

development on infuse system need to escalate in TTU District.

Fig 1. Kau and his wife showed their breadfruit tree and installed infuse system (source: 4CA project doc)

Fig. 2. Infuse system by bamboo installed in one tree (source: 4CA project doc)

3.2. Review on area context

TTU district, is located in coordinate 90 02’ 48” – 90 37’ 36” south and 1240 28’ 41” east, and it is

administratively located in Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) province. The size of this district is 2,669 km2

and acknowledged as one of the poorest province in Indonesia. The main topography of the area is

hilly area with 40% slope, thus TTU is considered as prone area to landslide. According to climate

classification by Schmidt and Ferguson, TTU is categorised type D and Koppen classified TTU in type

A, means that TTU is a semi-arid area. Based on climate vulnerability research result conducted by


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Plan Indonesia and climatologist from Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB) in 2012, TTU has

highest rain density in December and lowest in August every year. For agro climatic, TTU only has

four months wet and eight months dry. Thus, agricultural system in TTU naturally is prone to failure

and coping mechanism to address this issue therefore need to be developed.

TTU is an area which prone to various kind of disaster, natural and climatic related. At least there are

three main hazards each year, which are flood followed by landslide during wet season, strong wind

(whirl wind) and draught during dry season. Flood and landslide usually occurs during rainy season

due to high intensity of rainfall and land mismanagement in hilly area, while drought occur during long

period of dry season and also water mismanagement. A District Disaster Management Agency

(BPBD) has been established in TTU since 2010 to lead and coordinate three main areas such as risk

reduction, emergency relief, and rehabilitation or recovery. This institution also has mandate to work

and collaborate with other related government offices including with NGOs. Yet, the BPBD of TTU is

relatively new therefore the disaster risk management in TTU is still far from well-functioning.

Based on result of data surveyed in TTU, involving 28 respondents related to climatic related

disasters, the adaptive capacity level in TTU was still generally in the low level. This condition was

indicated using five indicators of adaptive capacity which are infrastructure, economics, technology,

social, and knowledge. Thus, to reduce disaster and climate risk, hazard exposure needs to be

minimized, vulnerability to be reduced, and capacities for resilience to be strengthened in ways that

address both disaster and climate risk simultaneously, neither approach comprising the other.

In 2013, according to the official information in TTU government website, TTU has planned US$

136,000 budget to build and/or rehabilitate 1 unit irrigation channel and US$ 1 million budget to build

river dam for irrigation supply for farming and agriculture. Supply ground and surface water are well

distributed in TTU area, eight big water streams supply surface water whole year with average length

30-50 km. Types of spring water also available in many areas of TTU such as perennial springs,

intermittent springs, and periodic springs.

Main farming commodities in TTU are rice, corn and grains, cocoa, coconut, and coffee. Relying on

farming and agriculture sector makes TTU income fluctuated and varied, thus it becomes high priority

to be developed. Furthermore, low economic growth of TTU compared to other district in NTT

province showed TTU has low productivity in their livelihood (Marbun and others 2009). The finding is

in line with research finding by Plan Indonesia and ITB on high level of vulnerability of people in TTU,

drawn from population and prosperity aspects. Meanwhile, to reduce disaster risk and also climate

change impacts, people vulnerability needs to be lessened.

4 Discussion UNISDR defines DRR as the concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic

efforts to analyse and manage the causal factors of disasters, including through reduced exposure to

hazards, lessened vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land and the

environment, and improved preparedness for adverse events (UNISDR 2009). The definition means

that to reduce the risk could be achieved by reducing exposure of hazard. In some regions, for

example in TTU, hazard of water scarcity could not be avoided due to its natural climatic and

geographical condition. However, its exposure and people vulnerability can be reduced by such an

innovative and simple practices, and using existing material locally.

According to Twigg (2009), DRR is a systematic approach to identifying, assessing and reducing the

risks of disaster. It aims to reduce socioeconomic vulnerabilities to disaster as well as dealing with the


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environmental and other hazards that trigger them. A focus on resilience does mean by putting

greater emphasis on what communities can do for themselves and how to strengthen their capacities,

rather than concentrating on their vulnerability to disaster or environmental shocks and stresses, or

their needs in an emergency. By means of learning by old people practices, few people can develop

their own small initiative which strengthens their capacity in dealing with hazard. Yet, it still needs

further development in order to get higher benefit, either for themselves and family or their

communities. Thus, awareness campaign and knowledge transfer mechanism need to be advanced

so that their livelihood become more sustain and people’s vulnerability could be reduced. In farming

and agriculture livelihood sector, the sustainability is measured when food security is balance, enough

to provide food in quantity and quality for people who live in it.

Good management of natural resources of the most important determinants that leads to balanced

food security in the world. Any imbalance in one of these resources, by extension, leads to an

imbalance in the ecosystem and thus the disparity in the global food security. As a result of global

problems like water scarcity, continued population growth and the agriculture soil sealing, the area of

agricultural land is decreasing continuously and often the most suitable land in terms of agriculture is

lost (Rabia and others 2013). Water and its supply raise problems of strategic importance, of great

complexity, being considered one of the keys to sustainable human development (Radu and Bucur

2010).

By thematic of Hyogo Framework of Action (HFA) of risk management, sustainable livelihood is one

important component to be achieved in order to reduce disaster risk. Indeed, diversification livelihood

can be developed to reduce vulnerability. However, diverting one livelihood into other sector based on

seasonal period should be considered as temporary solution and drag away people from their main

livelihood sector. Sustainable farming in semi-arid area that prone to water scarcity and drought

needs special attention since this area is having unavoidable natural hazard, might be also worsen by

climate change. Beside the increasing unpredictable weather, farmers can be also extremely

vulnerable due to socio economic condition and geographical access. Many of them have limited or

no access to new information, technology, or market. These led to people’s dependency and rely on

instantly aid and assistance from outside, which would not help them build their own independency

and resiliency.

In thematic of knowledge and education of HFA, it is mentioned that as resilience aspect, community

(rural) members skilled or trained in appropriate agricultural, land use, water management and

environmental management practices. Means of knowledge transfer to support risk reduction efforts

could be through trainings, awareness campaign, promotion, workshops/seminars, or media channel

campaign. Such technology might be long applied by one community but new for other community,

especially for community in remote area and lack of information access. People who are having same

geographical and climatic condition, facing same hazards, having same education, doing same

livelihood sector could be better replicate the good practice if it is better informed and/or trained.

Local practice, in the scope of DRR, such an infuse system would minimize the risk exposure of water

scarcity in farming sector. Water infusion system has almost similar application with manual drip

irrigation system in agriculture which water enters into the soil through small emitters to keep soil

moist and water stress in the root zone does not generally occur and plants use water more

efficiently. The concept of drip is successfully practiced on large and small commercial scales in the

arid and semi-arid regions around the world, such as in Australia, Israel, Jordan, Mexico, South

Africa, and USA (Belder and others 2007). Water is distributed much more efficiently with drip

irrigation than conventional flood and sprinkler systems (Maisiri and others 2005; Polak and Yoder

2006) and surface irrigation (Albaji and others 2008; Kalkhajeh and others 2012), reducing the total

amount of water required to grow a crop. For farmers who carry water to their gardens in buckets or


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watering cans, any interventions that saving time and water and reducing labour demands would help

to develop more effective agricultural application as well as to consider as local adaptive initiative to

reduce impact of water scarcity hazard.

Saving more time to fetch water for farmers with child is also part of the compliance to children’s rights

to get nurture, care, and attention. In child-centred project, children’s rights are become goal of

activities of reducing vulnerability. Following all types of disaster events, including those that rapid-

onset or slow onset such as regular flooding and drought, children’s future wellbeing is also likely to

be compromised by a reduction in household income, disruption to education, and loss or sickness of

family members on whom they depend. The growing intensity and frequency of climate related

hazard, as well as longer term climate change, and their potential harm to food and nutrition security,

health, and basic services, will also take a disproportionately heavy toll on children as malnutrition

and ill health during childhood impede future learning and physical development (Turnbull and others

2013).

The available water resources may not be able to meet various demands that will inevitably result in

the irrigation of land in order to achieve a sustainable livelihood and food security (Albaji and others

2008). As to achieve sustainable agriculture, the main livelihood sector for rural people, water

resources is a basic requirement. Water scarcity hazard in semi-arid area then threaten the effort to

achieve sustainable agriculture. People in that area shall put their domestic water need in first place

before water need for agriculture, especially in long dry season. Thus, to support their primary needs

such as food will rely on other sector or aid or assistance from outside. When disaster strikes, those

people will become the most vulnerable group and to have bounce back capacity to basic normal life

condition will be very difficult.

5 Conclusions There are technologies that helping to increase people’s capacity and reduce their vulnerability may

be well advanced for people in one area, while the same technology may be new for people in other

area. It closely affected by socio economic, access to information and education, and geographical

access. These factors actually can be managed by well development plan and implementation, by all

stakeholders such as government, NGO, CSO, private company, funding donor, and community

themselves.

Local practices, inherited from old people practices to deal with existing hazards, are not well

documented and long forgotten. In fact, those practices might be are still relevant and effective per

current period to deal with same hazard. Though the exposure risk that have been worsening by

another factor such as climate change, the old practices are still useful and give great impact.

Learning from the experience of Kau and Metan, two farmers from small village in TTU district,

infusion system is a cheap and simple technology, as well as it is environmental safe, can deal water

scarcity hazard in farming livelihood sector in semi-arid area, it also could bringing other benefits to

farmers such as saving time, man power, and water required to make trees and plants grow more

fertile.

6 Acknowledgements Plan Indonesia : Vanda Lengkong, Amin Magatani, Wahyu Kuncoro, Yusra Tebe, James Ballo,

Philipus Dara Lay, Berliana Dasa.


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Banain C: Andres Kau and Maria Metan

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Documents

Local practice on infusion system to reduce risk of water scarcity in