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Tap That!

of Water, Land and Us. (Vol.1)

By Carolyn Chon

May 12^th, 2014

new territory

Well, kind of. I started a documentary film project with a friend on the lack of access to clean water last year. Sure, there’s many of those going around on the internet and documentary film festival circuits, how’s our’s different? Well, the point it to get a message across, not be any different per se.

We decided that if a country that once boasted the tallest building in the world could actually have water issues, surely we have to dig deeper and share the story. More importantly, it’s a story on our homeland, Malaysia.

This photo below was shot at Indrasan Laut, a small village in Kudat, Sabah.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT : THE Man with a plan

Meet Navin, whose organization inspired the idea of our film.

Navin was at first running an organization called Water and Toilets, which he quit his cushy day job for. He was moved and compelled to do something about the water issue when he was first volunteering in Sri Lanka, where he was assisting single mothers and saw how much help was needed and got to witness first hand on the hardship of the less fortunate.

He has now revamped his organization and renamed it MAD.

(in your face kinda) introduction

While driving into the first village, Kampung Komburongo, we saw smoke billowing out from somewhere. Just as we suspected and expected, a couple of villagers (possibly workers) were burning off felled coconut trees. That’s right, though illegal, most villagers and farmers still resolve to this method get rid of unwanted pieces of trees/plantations. Why? Cause it’s the most cost and time effective. As much as it was not surprising, it was still very disheartening to see.

Chapter one : captain of the sea

Meet Ejim, a villager in Kampung Komburongo. He isn’t the village leader, or the head of the community, what he is though, is a volunteer in helping out on the water issue in his village. He organized for us to visit the other neighbouring villages to identify the challenges the community faces everyday for the past couple of decades.

CHAPTER TWO : WHERE HAVE ALL THE COWBOYS GONE?

We got to witness first hand the cause(s) of the problem. From deforestation in the name of further development, to sabotage of piping, brand new piping with no water flow…etc. It was a good eye-opening trip for us, a chance for us to bring back this story to the urbanites in Malaysia.