Indonesian Ancient Well (Sumur Kerek or Sumur Timba)

Indonesia is a big country and has many districts in every province. Some districts have had a modern sanitation, but the others are still having traditional stuffs for sanitation things.

In this modern era and sophisticated technology nowadays, in some districts (or village) in Indonesia, there are families still having or even using an ancient well for their sanitation stuffs. They are not using shower or tap for taking a bath, washing the dishes, and washing the clothes in their bathroom. But they still use a well for getting water which come from the bottom of the ground, natural water without any filtering. In Indonesia, it's called Sumur Kerek or Sumur Timba (Kerek or Timba Well).

This well has diameter 60-70 cm for the top of the well using thick concrete. While for the depth of the well, it could be 2 to 3 meters. To get the water from the inside of the well, things that is needed are bucket, pulley, long rubber straps, and 2 bamboos that be assembled in two sides on the top of surface to hold the pulley and the bucket that have installed above.

A long long time ago, Kerek was a "sophisticated" thing in that era. Because not many people or family can have the water sources that they can use it for sanitation things. But now, only few families are still using it and the others keep it as an accessories or ancient thing.

Perhaps, this thing is pretty rare thing right now, but I'm lucky still having the family that has this thing and do it for taking a bath and washing the dishes. There are some sensations that I can feel when I use Sumur Kerek. To get much water, we need an effort and energy to pull water from the bottom. And we have to do it carefully, because of the depth of the well.