“Ngebleng” : From Corruptive Dams to Clean Water

The Penggung dam’s irrigation primary channel rehabilitation project was subjected to maintain the water supply for seven villages in Wonosegoro Sub District of Boyolali Regency, Central Java, Indonesia. The corruption case occured during the project’s construction, however, had made the chanel functioned improperly. The poor quality of the infrastructure yielded, eventually, brought the communities in seven villages suffered severe drought during the dry season. The primary purpose of the study was to explain “Ngebleng” as a social strategy to attain freshwater employed by the villagers due to the compulsion of lack freshwater during the dry season. We employ ethnographical point of view to explain the strategy in the sustainable development context. The study concluded that ‘ngebleng’ as a social strategy employed by villagers to attain freshwater due to the dam’s malfunction as a result of good governance absenteism.