We never have to question the importance of water in the UK. We receive one of the highest annual rain falls of any country in the world. Safe drinkable water is just a tap turn away, in fact we bathe, wash our clothes and clean or cars with an abundance of fresh, clean, drinking water. The only time we think about water is when it rains too much.
Water in East Africa is a very different commodity. The United Nations has predicted that access to clean drinking water will replace religion as the main cause of conflict over the next 50 years. Only 40% of Ugandan’s have access to clean drinking water, although this statistic hides the difficulty in accessing it. From our experience, that 40% often have to walk great distances or sometimes it is simply turned off. The reality is that very few can rely upon a regular supply. There are still in 2012 significant problems in accessing this most imperative natural resource. Many of these I have mentioned before but the role that water plays here can not be underestimated. We think about it every day. Have we enough? When will it get switched off? Will it give us typhoid? But the reality for the Ugandans is much more life threatening.
I have included below some of the concerns Amy and I have over access to water. They are married up with the more pressing concerns of the Ugandan’s who can not hop on plane and fly home.
Amy and I: The cost of fruit and vegetables has doubled since we have been here due to the lack of rain.
Ugandans: 80% of the Ugandan economy relies upon agriculture. No rain (its currently 4 weeks late) forces farmers to sell their precious oxen or cows after weeks without yields to sell at market. This forces many back into absolute poverty with no means of harvesting crops when the rains do come.
Amy and I: In order to drink safe water that will not give us Typhoid we have to filter 6 bottles every day.
Ugandans: Ugandans, don’t have filters so they risk water born diseases such as Typhoid which is the greatest killer of children in Uganda.
Amy and I: Water is switched off every other day so we go without water- none to flush the toilet, cook with, clean our clothes, wash our dishes or drink if we forgot to filter sufficient the day before.
Ugandans: When the water is switched off the school children have to make a 4km trek with 20 litre jerry cans on their heads for cooking, drinking and clothes washing.
Amy and I: Rainfall brings a massive escalation in the number of mosquitoes and thus malaria, increasing our chance of getting infected.
Ugandans: The increase in Mosquito’s escalates the likely hood of children and the elderly dying from malaria.
Amy and I: The rainy season began this week. The flooding makes it difficult to get to work on the dirt tracks and lack of drainage leaves the sewage which has accumulated in ditches to spill out into the road.
Ugandans: Nightly thunderstorms flood homes and ditches spilling sewage into houses. Previously safe bore holes can be contaminated increasing the likely hood of cholera. This contributes to Uganda having one of the lowest life expectancies in the world, just 51 years.
You might like to think how different your lives would be if you couldn’t simply turn on the tap and instantly get fresh drinkable water. Especially when its currently 42c .
Most of these problems can be over come with the construction of a bore hole down to the water table and the fitting of a pump. It would be great if students would investigate how Halcyon could gain access to funding for such a venture.
This video sums up the importance of a bore hole
