Water is the driving force of nature. Without water, all life on earth—animal, plant, or human—cannot exist. One would think being surrounded by vast oceans would be enough to sustain all life on the planet, but that is not always the case. Despite being surrounded by large groundwater basins, rivers, and lakes*, at least 24 million Indonesians lack safe water, while 38 million lack access to improved sanitation facilities.
In East Nusa Tenggara, one of the many islands in the country, nearly 25% of households live without access to adequate and sustainable drinking water sources and would have to walk for miles to collect water for daily needs**. This inspired Komodo Water, a social enterprise formed in 2012, to build access to clean and affordable water for remote villages surrounding Komodo Park and Flores, powered by renewable and sustainable technology courtesy of Microsoft.
Shana Fatina, CEO and Founder of Komodo Water explained, “As the island’s economy flourished, so did their demand and use of water. To avoid a water crisis, Komodo Water saw an opportunity to expand and develop an integrated water management platform that maximized the use of big data to identify potential water sources that can later provide added value to not just its direct customers but also to policymakers and commercial businesses.”
Specifically, applications developed using Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) – one of Microsoft Azure’s cloud–native app solutions – have helped Komodo Water identify clean water points in Labuan Bajo and recommend locations for building water treatment plants and appropriate water distribution channels.
“Using AKS greatly facilitates our application development process and increases cost efficiency. From the development side, a Control Plane feature allows Azure to take over overhead activities such as the application’s health monitoring and maintenance. This reduces our developer’s workload and allows them to focus on other strategic activities. Meanwhile, from a cost standpoint, the Control Plane has become part of the user’s Azure resources, where users only need to pay and manage the AKS themselves, without additional costs,” continued Shana.
With this technology, Komodo Water has reached 16 thousand people, identified 104 water points out of the 118 points surveyed, facilitated 107.187 gallons of water, reduced fuel consumption by up to 30.000 liters, reduced plastic packs by up to 40 tons, and avoided at least 64.589 kilograms of CO2 emissions***. Together with Microsoft, Komodo Water hopes to create an even broader sustainable impact for Indonesia.
Shana added, “As the world goes digital, we must keep up with these changes to remain productive, effective, and competitive. We are grateful to Microsoft for giving us free access to Microsoft’s technologies and digital ecosystem, technical guidance and support to create real solutions, and, most importantly, the flexibility to innovate and grow at our own pace. The benefits we receive through the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub program are truly a dream come true. Creating a massive impact was no longer a far-fetched dream. Moving forward, we hope that our innovative and reliable technology can have a wider reach beyond East Nusa Tenggara because the data that we collect through this technology does not merely display static water-related data but has the potential to solve bigger problems, like water access and water usage across Indonesia, and receive measured and tangible results.”
Komodo Water is one of the many entities creating a sustainable impact in Indonesia. NGO partner Water.org has notably also partnered with Microsoft to help the latter build upon its commitment to enable the provision of water and sanitation services to 1.5 million people in seven water-stressed countries by 2030. The fruitful partnership has since provided 92,000 people access to safe water and sanitation in Indonesia****.
Another initiator is Jejak.in, a homegrown startup offering solutions based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) that has optimized technological innovation to address climate change challenges in Indonesia. By making the most of Microsoft’s solid technological offerings, Jejak.in has successfully measured over 5.1 million metric tons of carbon stock, monitored more than 450 thousand hectares of land, recorded over 4 million retail transactions, planted over 2 million trees, and collected data on over 15 thousand tree species, and 100 types of flora and fauna biodiversity.
Note that all of the above changemakers adopted a similar strategy to drive large-scale impact: collaboration. Through the power of collaboration, collective action, and technological innovation supported by Microsoft, Komodo Water, Water.org, and Jejak.in have been able to address climate change challenges in Indonesia actively, bringing the country even closer to a future that is both water-positive and carbon-neutral.
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* ADB Indonesia Country Water Assessment
*** Ibid