"This is our belief around here"

Book excerpt: This study analyzes ritual and domestic water use in a rural and an urban community in West Java, Indonesia. This is an area where water quantity and quality is a problem. The focus is on people who live at the edge of Citarum River, one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Most people there are Muslim. What is the relation between people's perceptions of pollution (of Upper Citarum River) and purification (in Islamic teaching) and their practices of water use. It studies the perceptions of pollution and purification of Sundanese Muslims in West Java and the effects of those perceptions on practices of domestic and ritual water use. Making a discourse analysis of local narratives the study argues that most people don't see pollution as problematic. For them it has become normal. They make a distinction between clean water (in medical sense) and pure water (in ritual sense).