Jakarta. The Coca-Cola Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the beverage giant, has helped Badung, Bali, to have 425 infiltration wells in 4 villages that can help store rainwater, according to a press release.

Climate change and land use changes have caused Bali to suffer from drought during the dry season and also flooding in the rainy season. Against this backdrop, The Coca-Cola Foundation, also known as the TCCF, granted US$ 141,411 to the non-profit organization JANMA to build infiltration wells, which can help collect rainwater and prevent local floods, in Badung, Bali. 

The program which started in Dec. 2021 and continued until a year later, has built 425 infiltration wells in the villages of Sembung, Kuwum, and Sobangan in the Mengwi subdistrict. As well as the Getasan Village in Petang subdistrict. 

I Gde Suarja, the program coordinator at JANMA, said this would mark the first time the non-profit organization builds infiltration wells in large numbers. According to I Gde Suarja, this is also the first time for Bali to see such a large-scale construction of infiltration wells. Every time it rains, the 8-cubic-meter infiltration well can collect rainwater to prevent it from flooding the residents’ areas.

“We did not have any flooding in our yards this rainy season thanks to the infiltration well which collected the rainwater from our home and the water streams from our neighbors. Back then when we did not have this well, our yard would look like a pond and the water sometimes got into our home,” Sembung village local Nyoman Dina was quoted as saying in a recent press statement. 

Getasan village head Wayan Suandi said that the program’s infiltration wells could help prevent the puddles of water and flooding in the village.

“Thank you JANMA and The Coca-Cola Foundation for helping us build the infiltration wells. Hopefully, this can help prevent the puddles in the locals’ homes or the public spaces, and also lessen the discharge of water to outside the house [gutters/roads], because the rainwater can go into the infiltration wells,” Wayan Suandi.

I Gde Suarja said that the locals also received training on how to take care of the infiltration wells.

“So these infiltration wells are more long-lasting and effective. We hope to see more parties building infiltration wells so Bali does not run out of its groundwater,” I Gde Suarja said.