Bearing the Voices of Hundreds, These Young Men Are Speaking Out on a Water Crisis Ignored For More Than a Decade

It is a place most Territorians will never see in their lifetimes. Just 11km from the Queensland Border, the remote community of Alpurrurulam sits closer to Townsville than to Darwin. Despite only having just above 400 residents, the town has faced chronic problems with water. But for two local teenagers, Alpurrurulam is more than just a place marked by constant hardship. For them, it is home, and they want to fight for it.

Both Malcolm Billy and Tarrant Anderson have grown up with unsafe drinking water and shortages shaping daily life. They said families often have to rely on bottled or sugary drinks because safe-drinking water from the tap cannot be guaranteed. 

“Kids who would normally be drinking water [go] to the shop and [buy] sugary drinks,” Malcolm explained. “In class, they sort of fall asleep because of it… even after school, they still drink the sugary drinks because there’s no option for clean water.”

While boxed water is delivered regularly to households in need, Malcolm told the Student Spotlight that only 3 boxes of water is given per household, which can sometimes include up to two families. And when the wet season comes, the community becomes cut off from the rest of Australia, effectively limiting their supply of clean water.

Tarrant said he didn’t fully understand the problem until he saw it firsthand affect his own family. “I saw my family [stop] drinking water. [That’s when] they told me everything.”  This experience and many others he saw, Tarrant said, made him want to speak up, especially for the kids who had known nothing but this and had to walk in the heat without clean water.

The community’s elders have been raising the alarm for years, calling on governments and for people with power to act. But their pleas have gone unanswered. “Some say that it’s been happening since 2007, but some believe it was older,” Malcolm said. “Every elder in our community has tried and fought for the water [issue] to maybe get the politicians or government to build a new pipe stream… to deliver fresh water.” 

“But nothing has been done for the past 14 years.”

For 14 years, families in Alpurrurulam have lived with water greatly exceeding safe fluoride levels – 1.7mg/L, double what health experts recommend. And for pregnant women and children under the age of 3, the water is unsafe for consumption, with potential side effects including damage to teeth and bones, and the brain development of young children. 

In December last year, the Supreme Court ruling was upheld that the NT government is responsible for providing safe drinking water to remote communities as their landlord. But nearly a year later, the boys said nothing has been fixed or changed.

Responding to questions put forward by the Student Spotlight, the Power and Water Corporations claimed that there has not been any complaints about the delivery of water in the community of Alpurrurulam, and that the remote water team is working with the community to improve water delivery.

But when asked about a timeframe on the construction of new water infrastructure, Power and Water did not provide a definite answer.

While Malcolm said he felt his community is deprived of a voice, the 17-year-old said there is still hope.

“They don’t have the voice to speak for it but I do,” Malcolm said of his community and elders. “I [feel] happy knowing that I’m helping my people fight for clean water… and I’m really proud of it.” 

Both Malcolm and Tarrant know that their community’s fight for water is only part of a much bigger story. One about what it means to grow up in an isolated and remote community like Alpurrurulam but imagine a different future for themselves and their loved ones. 

“If I live through this, what will the future generation [have to] live through?” said Malcolm. “It could [be] much worse for the future generations. So, I said to myself…”

“I’m going to speak for my community.”

That drive and passion carried him and Tarrant all the way to Darwin this year, where both sat in the Legislative Assembly as part of the NT Youth Parliament. There, before rows of strangers in suits and dresses, they did what no one from Alpurrurulam had done before. They spoke about their people’s struggles directly to those in power, sitting and watching. 

It was a moment neither of them will forget. Even though they were scared, neither Malcolm nor Tarrant could let down the community they came to speak for. “When I first approached the box I was nervous… but for the first time I felt something besides anxiety and fear – mostly pride,” Malcolm recalled. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to come here to Darwin and speak for my people.”

Tarrant felt the same mix of nerves and pride. “Yeah, I was nervous,” he admitted. “My face was calm, but my leg was shaking. When I was done, my leg was still shaking when I went back to the chair. [But] I feel happy and excited… happy for the other speeches I heard too.”

For both of them, their speeches were about more than just a petition. They were about proving that their voices mattered too. “I’m going to join the Youth Parliament,” Malcolm remembered saying to himself. “And I’m going to make sure that everyone in the chamber hear[s] my voice and the voice of [the] people in the community of Alpurrurulam.”

That pride, they said, is what drives their vision for what comes next. Tarrant is hopeful and confident that change will happen in their community, but Malcolm is more hesitant in believing that change will come easily. “Only time will tell,” Malcolm said. But both believe that speaking up is only the first step. 

“If [change] does [happen], then I will be happy and I will tell the story to future generations of kids in Alpurrurulam,” he said. “To encourage them to do what I did. To go speak their truth and never to be ashamed of who they are and where they’re from.”

Tarrant’s hope is more direct – he said he wants to see the day when kids in his community won’t be forced to choose between drinking sugary drinks or water from unsafe taps, but will grow up with the simple dignity of clean water at any time. 

“[I’m here] to talk about the water at Alpurrurulam so kids back in Alpurrurulam can drink better water… instead of just walking in the hot heat,” he said.

Both young men’s journeys are only beginning. Now set to be the first two students in years to graduate Year 12 from Alupurrurulam School, they said they want to keep helping, keep speaking, and keep pushing for their community to be seen. What they want from the government is simple. Change. Action. A pipe, clean water, and actual investment – not just 14 years of silence, avoidance, evasion and neglect. What they want for their community is even simpler: a chance for kids to grow up healthy, for families to feel safe, and for voices like theirs everywhere to be heard and to be respected.