International Journal of Indonesian Studies Volume 1, Issue 3 | Page 79

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN STUDIES SPRING 2016 preventing disease and creating health-supportive environments. This definition excludes behaviour not related to environment, as well as behaviour related to the social and cultural environment, and genetics. (WHO, 2013) This study investigated five key factors of environmental health and protection found by local researchers to be most relevant to the context of NTT. Effendi (2013) lists five key factors as crucial to guarding the environmental health of settlements: access to clean water, adequate draining, sanitation, management of rubbish, roads and paving and access to health facilities, markets and district capitals. Environmental health in South Central Timor. Timor Tenggah Selatan (TTS), or South Central Timor, is composed of 394,000 hectares of land making it the third largest district in NTT (BPS NTT, 2012/2013). The district is also composed of 32 Kecamatan or sub-districts and 278 kelurahan or village subunits (BPS NTT, 2012/2013). Located in the South-Central hills, the capital city of TTS, Soe and the surrounding area sits at an altitude of 900+ metres above sea level. As a result of its higher altitude (the 3rd highest in the province) the district of TTS experiences a cooler climate and greater volume of rainfall than most other parts of Timor. Because of its mountainous terrain, many of the sub-districts and villages in TTS are very remote and difficult to access. As a result, many of these villages must also face a range of challenges in accessing health services. Not having access to trained medical staff has been proven to increase the risk of maternal and neonatal death. In 2012 TTS recorded 25 maternal deaths (14.53% of the entire province), the highest number recorded in NTT (NTT 2012). In the breakdown of these figures, 16 of these deaths were attributed to loss of blood and hemorrhaging (BPS NTT, 2013, pp. 152-155). A further three deaths were caused by hypertension during pregnancy and four more were linked to infection (BPS NTT, 2013, pp. 152-155). These conditions may have also been interrelated and mothers may have experienced two or more of these illnesses as a cause of death. 79 | P a g e