Expand rural community access to safe water and adequate sanitation, and improve hygiene behaviour.

Australia supports the Government of Timor-Leste to provide clean water and better sanitation to rural communities through the Timor-Leste Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program (RWSSP), known locally as BESIK (Be'e, Saneamentu no Ijiene iha Komunidade), which means community water supply, sanitation and hygiene. The goal of the program is to help the Government of Timor-Leste to provide people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation and hygiene. The program assists with the construction and rehabilitation of water supply systems, promotes good sanitation and hygiene practices, strengthens local capacities (government, non-government organisations and the private sector) and supports a community management approach to sustain water systems. Australia is providing over $40m to a second phase of BESIK which will run for the next 4 years. BESIK 1 was completed on 16 September 2012 and BESIK 2 commenced immediately after with no gap in services. DFAT initiative ING002 (BESIK 1) and INK217 (BESIK 2).

BESIK and DFAT  estimated that at the end of 2015, as a result of increased capital investment, Timor-Leste would be on track to achieve the MDG to halve the proportion of people without access to safe water in rural areas. However, the high level of water system breakdown jeopardises the achievement of this target. Sufficient budget allocations for operations and maintenance are critical to resolve this issue. Since 2008, BESIK has increased access to improved water and sanitation. Over 102,000 rural people now have gained access to safe water (without taking into account any water system breakdown) and 79,000 rural people now have access to basic sanitation. Around 426,017 people have increased knowledge of hygiene practices. BESIK is also contributing through technical and financial contribution to the Government of Timor-Leste, water supply projects resulting in an estimated additional 172,186 people having access to water.