Innovative Effort to Make Drinking Water Safe in Indonesia Uses

Strategic Communication to Stimulate Commercial Sector Involvement

New Program in Addition to Several CCP Hygiene Improvement Post-Tsunami Programs

 With roughly 100 million Indonesians without access to safe drinking water and 70 percent of the population relying on water from contaminated sources, an innovative strategic communication program has been designed to engage Indonesia’s commercial sector to manufacture, distribute, and market a new safe water system.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is supporting the two-year Safe Water System (SWS) program, which aims to create a sustained market for the product nationwide. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs (CCP) is leading the consortium implementing the SWS program that includes CARE, as well as local nongovernmental organizations and private businesses. In addition to engaging the commercial sector, the program also uses strategic communication to generate demand from the public for the new product.

“Combining local business involvement with increased demand from consumers is a double-pronged attack against diarrheal disease in Indonesia,” said Fitri Putjuk, CCP’s Country Representative. “Changing consumer behavior to use safe water products will only work if the products are readily available.”

CCP is also active in Banda Aceh and other tsunami-impacted areas with several public health communication programs designed to improve hygiene and reduce the incidence of diarrheal disease. For example, CCP is involved with a USAID-funded campaign to promote hand washing with soap that reaches out to religious leaders and families by linking hygiene and health messages to the Koran. Since cleanliness is important in Islam, the hygiene message resonates with Muslims in the tsunami area. CCP also helped design and produce radio programs as well as dramas acted out in refugee camps (and written by the some of the camp inhabitants) that are part of the effort.

To help women impacted by the tsunami with reproductive health (RH) issues, CCP is helping reactivate family planning (FP) and RH services in the most affected areas. FP/RH came to a standstill after the disaster, with distribution of supplies interrupted and many providers, including midwives, killed or displaced. Through the USAID-funded STARH project, CCP supports FP/RH services in camps and barracks for displaced women, and communities lacking supplies or services. STARH (Sustaining Technical Achievements in Reproductive Health/Family Planning) focuses on developing Indonesia’s capacity to provide high-quality FP/RH services and informed choice of methods and services.

In addition, CCP helps UNICEF and the Government of Indonesia provide access to health information in areas affected by the tsunami. CCP is assisting in message and materials development, and helping design radio programs to promote health messages to the community.  CCP is also conducting a training program to help those working post-tsunami ¾ including religious groups, teachers, camp leaders, and health workers ¾ develop clear and consistent hygiene messages used in strategic communication materials, such as pamphlets, children’s games, and public service announcements.

Over the next 5 years, CCP will provide technical assistance to the Environmental Services Project, lead by Development Alternatives Inc., to support behavioral change communication initiatives that will contribute to the reduction in the incidence of diarrhea disease in children through promoting: 1) correct hand-washing techniques at appropriate times; 2) appropriate practices for treatment and management of safe water, and; 3) correct maintenance of community water sources and latrines.

Finally, CCP works with Aquaya and the Healthy Indonesia 2010 coalition (Koalisi Untuk Indonesia Sehat or KuIS) to help increase the use of Procter & Gamble’s PuR water treatment product. The three partners formed the PuRelief consortium to ensure PuR is distributed properly and that those that receive it can use it correctly to purify their drinking water and understand how using PuR can help prevent diarrhea. PuR comes in a small packet that is used in the household to make contaminated water safe for drinking.

With representatives in more than 30 countries, Johns Hopkins' CCP partners with organizations worldwide to design and implement strategic communication programs that influence political dialogue, collective action, and individual behavior change; enhance access to information and the exchange of knowledge to improve health and health care; and conduct research to guide program design, evaluate impact, and advance knowledge and practice in health communication. For more information, visit www.jhuccp.org .

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs (CCP) is solely responsible for the contents of this press release.