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A villager gets freshwater for cooking from a rainwater collection and storage unit in the small village of Turutapa which is situated in the Adelbert Mountain Range of Papua New Guinea's Madang Province © Mark Godfrey/The Nature Conservancy

By Margaret Southern

Imagine that this is your day’s to-do list: Boil water for breakfast tea, wash the dishes, tend to the garden, prepare dinner, and bathe the children.

It doesn’t sound too out of the ordinary. But now imagine that the closest source of water isn’t your kitchen sink, but a stream more than a mile downhill. That makes the list sound a little more daunting. In the dry season, those tasks might be nearly impossible.

The Nature Conservancy is helping conservation-minded communities in Papua New Guinea obtain rainwater collection tanks, ensuring close access to clean water year-round.

A Thirst for Water

The Conservancy has been working with communities in the Adelbert Mountains range of Papua New Guinea for more than 10 years. During this time, the Conservancy worked with several communities who wanted to conserve their land rather than see it logged for a short-term profit.

Along with the Almami local level government, the Conservancy helped create conservation legislation that allows local landowners to develop land use and management plans. Many landowners chose to set aside large areas for conservation in exchange for the Conservancy’s assistance in developing these plans and obtaining sustainable development benefits to improve their livelihoods.

The community members have a long list of services they’d like to receive: better education, access to health care, and road maintenance, among others. However, emerging at the top of the list was a need for clean water.

In 2007, with help from the Conservancy, four communities secured a grant for rainwater collection tanks. These massive tanks will ensure that the villagers have access to water through the dry season, and keep the women from having to walk to a water source to fetch water year-round.

“Here there are periods of really long dry season where we don’t have enough water,” said Phillip Nema of the Avipa Village. “A few years ago we had a really long dry season and had to dig for water. Traditionally we had rain makers that might have helped, but we are losing those traditions.”

Conservation Planning

During the conservation planning process, the community members began to realize the importance of protecting rare and endemic species that have been disappearing due to human threats. Each community created its own land use and management plan, determining which areas could be used for farming, growing cash crops, hunting, and gathering building materials and which areas could be designated for conservation.

Nema admitted that some people in his village were skeptical about the help the Conservancy was offering, but the assistance in designing the land use management plan changed their minds.

“It was the process that led to the land use management plan that made the difference,” Nema said. “We saw there was a way to manage the land. Our ancestors had a way of using the resources that made sure there was something for the future and we would be doing the same.”

The arrival of the water tanks reinforced the notion that the Conservancy was there to stay. “Since we began engaging with the Conservancy we’ve seen services that we’ve never seen before,” said Nema.

Next Steps

The Conservancy is now helping conservation communities in the Adelbert Mountains — with technical assistance from a Bogia District Business Development officer — to form cooperative societies. The goal of the co-ops is to link to fair-trade markets and receive certification, which will attract a premium price for their cocoa and other cash crops.

The co-ops now have their first crop of fair-trade cocoa.

Margaret Southern is a writer/editor for the Conservancy's Global Content Development Team.