A floating health service brings care to Borneo’s most remote communities
There are no roads to many of the villages inside the Katingan Mentaya Project zone. The waterways of Central Kalimantan — the rivers, canals, and tributaries of the peat swamp — are the highways here. Getting to a clinic, for most families, means a long boat journey. Getting a clinic to come to you was, until recently, unimaginable.
The Katingan Mentaya Project changed that. Working in collaboration with local health officials, the project introduced a floating health service that travels the waterways to reach villages that have never had reliable access to medical care. Healthcare is delivered by boat, on a schedule, to communities living deep within the peat swamp forests.
“The project’s floating health service delivers healthcare to remote villages via waterways — an innovative approach ensuring access to essential health services for communities in hard-to-reach areas.”
It is a deceptively simple idea with profound consequences. For mothers seeking ante-natal care, for children who need vaccinations, for elderly residents managing chronic conditions — the difference between care and no care can be the distance between the village and the nearest town. The floating clinic erases that distance.
During the monitoring period, 2,417 local community members accessed healthcare services through project initiatives. And the broader health programme extends beyond the floating clinic: health centres have been constructed, clean water access has been improved, and education programmes have reached 376 students and 20 teachers on health and environmental stewardship.
2,417 community members who accessed healthcare
2,174 women whose health outcomes improved (project lifetime)
376 students reached by health & environment education
The floating clinic is also a symbol of something larger — a recognition that conservation cannot succeed without community wellbeing. When people have access to healthcare, to education, to livelihoods, the need to exploit the forest diminishes. The project’s investment in health is, simultaneously, an investment in the peatlands themselves.
In a landscape defined by water, it is fitting that the path to better health travels across it too.
(Photos courtesy of RMU)
*All statistical information is based on the latest monitoring report covering the years 2020-2023
The Katingan Mentaya website HERE
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