Water is Life

When you live in Europe, water is always there. You take it for granted and you can’t imagine that you will be without water. Here in Kumbo, there is a yearly water crisis around March and April. This is the end of the dry season and that is causing problems. However, this year even my Cameroonian colleagues say it is very bad, much worse than normally. And nobody knows why.

In the past two years I found out that being without light is annoying, especially if it takes for days. You can’t charge your computer or phone, you can’t keep food for long as the fridge doesn’t work and the nights are very long and boring as it is dark by 7PM.

Tap water...

But being without water is much more complicated. Did you ever think about for how many things you need water? Try to cook without water, you can’t wash your vegetables, you can’t even boil rice or pasta or potatoes. Or, think about all the dust that you catch when you walk home. If I wear my sandals my feet are totally red of the dust and there is no water to wash them. Or, how hygienic is it to flush your toilet only twice a day to save water?

I store water and I really learnt techniques to save water. For example; flushing the toilet twice a day, washing dishes once in two days and use that water again to flush the toilet. Or wash your vegetables in water in which you can then wash the dishes (and then you can also flush the toilet again).

Many Cameroonians have a borehole and a pit toilet on their compound. We don’t have any of these in our house. So I need to bring jerry cans to fill in the office if there is water there. And be careful to not spill water and fill everything as soon as water comes on. That means that I might find myself filling jerry cans and buckets by 3AM or so.

Years ago I saw a TV program in which Paul Rosenmöller was visiting women in Niger. I still remember that he was following them to the well were they were getting water. That well was something like 7km from their houses and they had to walk there, fill their jerry cans and walk back.

They were telling that sometimes the well was dry and they didn’t find water. Rosenmöller asked what they did in these cases and the women said; well we walk back and try again tomorrow. And we sleep thirsty.

I remember it very well as I couldn’t imagine a life like this. How horrible should it be? Now I feel it even more. I am lucky enough to be able to find water in town and have someone who can help me to carry it in a car to my house. But when the water is off in both the office and my house I really start to worry. I can’t imagine how it would feel to always wonder if you would find water today. Or to walk every day for 14 kilometres to get water, and then you can only pray there is really water when you arrive.

Water will become scarce in the world in the next decades. I have learnt here how horrible it is to be without, and I also learnt how to save water. If everybody would save water like we are forced to do here, the scarcity will become less. So, save water to save lives!