A picture is worth a thousand words. By conventional wisdom then, these two pictures are worth double that. What if I told you that over 100,000 people depend on these two rivers (the Nanyuki River on the top/left and the Likii River on the bottom/right) to providing water for domestic use (e.g., drinking, cooking, bathing), irrigation (i.e., farming), and livestock watering? What would you say? I would ask, "HOW?!?" In a nutshell, that is the main issue I'm helping my organizations to deal with here in Kenya. This is not a localized problem either. Most of the country is classified as "arid" or "semi-arid", basically meaning there is very little rainfall. Exacerbating this problem is that there exists very little in terms of water infrastructure both locally and throughout the country. When it does rain, there are generally not systems in place to catch that water for later use, whether it is dams/reservoirs or gutters on individual roofs that drain into a tank. In addition, there's not a lot of storage capacity - by individuals/families, communities/municipalities, or larger entities. As of right now, water, especially that coming from rivers, is not shared equitably among all users (i.e., among users at the source to those all the way downstream). Those upstream take what they need and those downstream in the very dry areas get whatever is left, which may not be anything for months at a time. This invariably leads to conflict between groups of users in different geographical locations, and I've seen demonstrations in my own town and heard stories of water intakes being smashed so that water will be allowed to flow downstream.
In addition to basic human needs (drinking, cooking, sanitation), water is also the lifeblood of the local economy. I am not certain of the exact number, but I would guess that well over half of the people in my area are dependent upon horticulture (e.g., growing corn, beans, veges, flowers) for their economic livelihoods either by working at a large operation or maintaining their own shamba (farm) from which they also feed their own family. When there isn't a semi-reliable source of water, either through rainfall or irrigation water from the rivers), a very large number of people endure incredible economic hardship. I'm not talking about having to put off that vacation to Europe or not going out to eat but once a month - I am talking about the difference between eating and not eating on a given day or for several days at a time.
I took the two pictures above about a month and a half ago at the end of March, which was supposed to be the end of our dry season here on the Western slopes of Mt. Kenya. Since that time, we've had very little rainfall, with most of it falling on the mountain proper. Some of that rainfall has made it into the rivers. At one point the rivers "filled" enough that one could barely make out the maze of rocks in the riverbed, but over the last week, the rivers have been looking like the pictures above. Last night, the water in my tap at home ran dry. I should have seen it coming because I walk across both rivers on a daily basis and I saw them dwindling down to nothingness. But I still had water in my tap, so I didn't really think about it. Then all of a sudden I didn't and all of the problems from February and March came right back. During parts of those months, I was ill-prepared for water shortages and sometimes didn't know if I was going to have enough water to last me the day or where I was going to get my water once it ran out. Check that, I did know where I would get my water - a two-mile round trip to the river to scoop it out into a large jug and then haul the full, heavy jug uphill home. Each trip took well over an hour and it was exhausting. And that is coming from someone who runs marathons up mountains. Luckily this time I have about 100 liters of water stored as backup and a full 10 liters of treated drinking water. But I don't know when the water is going to come back, so I'm being very cautious. I flushed the toilet one last time, and it won't get used again until the water comes back (at four liters/flush, that is very wasteful). I skipped laundry day today and since most everything passed the sniff test, I'm probably good until the end of this week. I swept out my rooms, but didn't mop or wipe down walls, windows, or furniture. I went for a run this morning, but did not shower afterwards (eeewwwww!). Instead I poured a cup of water over my head and did a quick wipe/rinse of the worst areas. I will take a bucket bath this evening, but it will be a half-bucket max.
The water won't come back for good until the river level comes up a bit. I heard a crackle of thunder earlier, but I look outside now and it is a not-so-beautiful clear blue sky. But I am one of the lucky ones. Most of my friends don't have water storage at their houses. I know because when I was hauling all of my mtungis (20-liter plastic jugs) home from town, they asked what I needed all of those jugs for. I explained and urged them to get backup as well, but most of my friends can't even afford a single mtungi. Most of them are forced to choose between that or giving up dinner for a week (or two). It's really not a choice.
Water pollution is also a HUGE issue. There are several informal settlements (pc term for "slum") neighboring the main part of town, and I've had a chance to walk through all of these now. In most of the informal settlements, you can see people washing their clothes directly in the river, leaving lots of soap water to continue downstream. In one particular informal settlement, there is also a lot of illegal brewing of alcohol that goes on and the waste sludge is dumped directly into the river, just upstream from where women and children are fetching water for drinking and cooking. The black sludge in the following picture is one location where we noted the "chang'a" waste being dumped into the Likii River.
So, what am I/we (that is, my community with any assistance I may be able to offer) DOING about this?!? Well, first of all, there are a lot of people that genuinely want to do something to improve the situation (including me), and that in and of itself is a huge step. I am beginning to understand what all of the issues are, who the key players are, what the possibilities are, and where some of the roadblocks may lie. As GI Joe says, "and knowing is half the battle!". That's only half right, although not bad for an 80's cartoon character. In developing countries, you can know what to do, have a group of people committed, and even have a great plan and be fully funded, and then things will fall apart. I guess that happens in America too, so I shouldn't be so critical. Implementation is a huge issue, nonetheless. Obviously dams and reservoirs to catch and store the water that falls during the rainy seasons would be ideal. But those take a long time to build, are expensive, and a lot of hurdles have to be cleared before construction can even begin. There are plans in the works for dams, but they will not help in the short term. The main things that I am working on with my organizations are education and awareness raising (showing why it is important to conserve water and how to do it!), developing small scale storage such as community water tanks, pans, and outfitting homes and institutions with rainwater collection systems, and trying to increase efficient water use for farming (e.g., drip irrigation and conservation agriculture, where applicable), and helping to develop water rationing programs. In the African context, water ration Water rationing means specific groups (e.g., community intakes) get NO WATER, sometimes for very extended periods of time, not that there are restrictions on when can wash your car or water your lawn. As a small business volunteer, I'm also trying to help ensure that the community-based organization that I'm working with are operating efficiently and going to be financially self-sustaining long after I leave. I'm running out of time to go into details, but that's at least a general overview.
Whew! That was a lot of serious stuff! But it gives you a little more insight into some of the challenges that people face here on pretty much a daily basis, and why I'm so happy to be here doing what I'm doing. Because water is such a large issue here, and there is so much work to be done at each of my three primary organizations where I work, I haven't had much of a chance to get involved in "secondary projects". Through secondary projects, Peace Corps volunteers help address other needs/issues in the community based on the community's needs/wants (as opposed to forcing on the community what a volunteer THINKs they need or want), the volunteers skills, and available time. I've been involved in a handful of community events (the Community Forest Association Walk, for example), but otherwise, I've been integrating into the community and discovering what issues are important to people here and learning what is being done already, who is doing it, and where I might be able to fit in. Hopefully I'll find some time soon to post again and float some of these issues and ideas I have to assist.
It is nearly impossible for me to write a blog post without a little bit of humor in it, and if you've read everything up to this point, you're pretty deserving of a "treat." So hear goes. Last night I was doing some cleaning/redding up in advance of my usual Sunday morning chores, and I decided I would throw out my trash and food scraps from the week. Of course it's not quite like the US where you throw your stuff in a dumpster or take it out to the street and it magically disappears. Most people here have their own trash pit (i.e., a mini-landfill) somewhere on their property if they are fairly well-off, otherwise it just gets thrown out the window/door (literally). An out-of-sight (for now), out-of-mind approach. Most people with a dump pit burn everything in the pit once every couple weeks, and even after that, it is still a disgusting mess. It makes you think twice about buying packaged stuff. I generate just a little bag of trash (the size of a small US-size grocery bag) every two or three weeks, and I still feel bad about that. I may have mentioned before that the white geese that live on the property go absolutely nuts when they see me emerge from my rooms with a little container of food scraps and/or a bag of trash. They squack and come running like the wind - they would give Usain Bolt a run for his money over 20 meters. But there is a fence between them and the dump pit that they usually can't quite manage to get over. Last night, for some reason, the fence was being worked on and some of the horizontal slats were missing. Only one of the geese spotted me, but he came flying over in a hurry when he saw me dump a bunch of crap in the pit. It was quite a sight - he hopped over the one remaining fence slat while waddling at full speed (wings are clipped so he can't fly) and then threw himself head first into the trash pit to get at the banana peels, avocado rind, stale bread, and whatever other goodies were in there. I'm sure the banana peels were not good for him as he was swallowing them WHOLE, but when I tried to pick them up, he pecked me repeatedly, so I just let him be. Here is a picture of my friend looking up at me and warning me not to come any closer:
I have not seen this guy today anywhere, so I'm hoping he didn't gorge himself to death on banana peels. Hopefully I'll be a little more regular about posting, but for now, that's about it. Happy Mother's Day Mom and to all the other Mom's out there who may happen to read this!!!
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