On the morning of March 12, the participants went on a field visit to Bekasi District in West Java Province, which is 1.5 to 2 hours away from Jakarta (by bus). The area is a paddy field area around 300 hectares (mostly owned by rich people living in the cities).
Most of the peasants are landless and just rent a piece of land or work as cheap labor in the paddy fields. There are approximately 360 households living and depending on the field. There is no fresh and clean water for their daily needs. The area is affected by polluted water since it is surrounded by some elite townhouses and factories. The 360 families were also deeply affected by the floods in early February.
The group of peasants runs a duck nursery (small farm of ducks). They had about 600 ducks before the flood early February. But after the flood hit the village, they now have only 60-70 ducks in the farm. The group lost everything they earned.
The group leaders said that they have an agreement with the local water state company to provide fresh and clean water. But the company said the peasants have to provide the pipes themselves. Therefore, the peasants formed a group to collect funds for the purchase of pipes so the water can flow from the company installation to the village.
In terms of providing the infrastucture, API is trying to provide pipes and a huge tank to reserve the clean water for the community. So, from the rest of the solidarity support dedicated for several natural disaster last year (from AFA, AsiaDHRRA, Sor Kor Por, KAFF, etc), API still has a small amount of fund. API allocated this small amount of money to peasants in Bekasi. During the visit, API symbolically turned over the pipelines to the community.
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