Of course there is not enough extra water to maintain basic personal hygiene. Those who don't have water collectors and can afford the price, walk about 7 kilometers each way down to the nearest city where, they can purchase water. Only to return up the steep slopes carrying the water on their heads. It is only possible to carry enough water for one family for one day under such difficult conditions. Sadly, those who can not afford to buy water, collect their water from polluted and contaminated rivers which carry diseases.

Some women are married, others have been abandoned or widowed. Those that are married can expect little or no help from their partners since income producing jobs are not available for the men either. Some men stay busy rebuilding huts which have fallen during the previous monsoons or looking for the odd day labor jobs, which is rarely productive.
In order to find money for water and food the women of these villages are increasingly venturing into the cities in the hope of finding work. But without any type of handicraft skills, their prospects are bleak. Without alternatives, they have no choice but to become beggars although it is a humiliating experience in Indonesia where begging is not culturally accepted.

When the women go to the cities to beg, they bring their nursing and small children along, to stand in the streets all day and sleep in shop entrances at night for 4 to 5 weeks at a time.  An average day of begging brings in about $1.50 which is only half of the standard minimum wage, and not enough to support themselves and their families.
Filthy conditions and the lack of shelter cause many of their children to fall ill. Without money for doctors, the situation can get extremely desperate very quickly.

Once these women have collected enough small money they return to their villages to care for their parents and other family members for a few weeks until they return to the streets once again.  Ultimately this humbling experience disempowers and destroys their culture leaving them with little self respect and no hope to improve their conditions.