Water, It’s Complicated
Water and I have always had an interesting relationship. In the United States, my home sits where the suburbs meet the rolling foothills of California’s Central Valley. It is a beautiful area, one I have always loved. Unfortunately though, my home’s connection to city water pipelines is just out of reach. Instead, the neighborhood I live in relies solely on well water.
For decades, using this well water was not an issue, but in fact was an abundant resource. Rains were good and local families could easily pull from aquifers, rivers, and dams for farming and personal use. However, when the drought of 2011 hit, water problems became an issue no one could ignore. As I grew up, one by one, I saw my neighbors’ wells go dry. These people no longer had water coming from their faucets, no water to shower, no water to cook or clean. Eventually, many had to truck in water from other areas or dig another well which was both expensive and not guaranteed. My family cut back on our water usage, but we also had days where there was nothing. After long conversations we made the decision to dig this year, and luckily we found water.
Wake Up Call
Many are not fully aware of just how precious this resource is. Americans have some of the cleanest water in the world. The water we use to flush our toilets, for example, is often cleaner than the majority of drinking water available in developing countries. Even with my complicated relationship, I still took for granted the relative ease I had access to water. In the end it always came, and with the power of reliable pipes and electricity, water seemed to magically appear out of thin air in my home. Then I arrived to Senegal and I was in for a rude awakening. Water is a huge privilege.
In Senegal, like much of the developing world, the majority of the population does not have reliable access to water. Let alone clean water. I was told going into my site, that Foundiougne often went several days with out the resource. Initially, I believed it would be an easy transition due to my experience with wells, but this turned out not to be the case at all. Getting water in my home here has been a wake up call to my privilege back in the States, one more people need to be aware of. In my community specifically, there are two main challenges: the overall quality of the water and getting it in the first place.
Water Quality
Combined with a rapidly changing climate and challenges with resource management, Foundiougne’s water has slowly been undergoing a salinization process. As the delta’s coastline rises, natural fresh water resources are contaminated with salt, hugely affecting its quality. Although the water is still good for cooking, cleaning, and bathing, residents can no longer drink the water that runs through their own pipes. This is a problem that has led to the community searching farther and wider than before for this daily necessity, or risk sickness by drinking the contaminated water.
In order to combat this predicament, programs like PROSAF II (my service site) have constructed several wells in surrounding villages. While this is a good start to addressing the issue, with more infrequent rains, there is no guarantee how long the water in these wells will last year to year. Another option many turn to are filtration sites and water trucks. But again, this isn’t a perfect solution. My closest filtration site is a 20 minute car-ride away, where I can pay to fill up my 10L bottles. For the vast majority of Senegalese who live without vehicles, this simply isn’t an option. Instead families wait for the water trucks to make their stops in town, everyone hauling their bright yellow jerrycans to and from their houses, hoping there is still enough water left in the tanker.
Grab the Buckets!
Finding clean drinking water is difficult enough already; however drawing water for life’s other necessities also bring certain challenges that most Americans do not ever have to think about. While in the United States getting water is as easy as turning on the tap of your kitchen sink, drawing water for the average Senegalese in my community instead is incredibly time and energy intensive.
To begin with, most pipelines indoors do not exist, or simply do not function. Instead, households get all their water from a common spout located in each compound’s yard. Usually this spout is shared between 2 to 3 family units. As a result, anytime anyone needs water, they must take their buckets outside to the spout, fill each bucket, and/or wait their place in line to get water.
To avoid several trips throughout the day, my family (for example) makes the effort to fill all of our buckets at night. If you have never had to confront how much water you use in a day, this is a real eye opener. Water goes very quickly. Thus, drawing water is our most important daily chore. Filling buckets can take several hours depending on how much water is available. After each one is filled, the buckets must then be carried back inside the home (or up the stairs in my case). Buckets can be extremely heavy, and the activity as a whole is energy draining.
While I saw this process as an inconvenience at first, there was something else that bothered me more deeply about drawing water. Women and girls are basically the only ones burdened with this job. Getting buckets, finding water, waiting to fill containers, and carrying the water home are all done by wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters. Here in Senegal, the traditional construct of gender is still very strong. Men and boys almost never participate in the household chores. After participating myself in the process of getting water and seeing the time it takes to do so, there is a huge loss of opportunity here in what is called unpaid labor. The time it takes to draw water could be put to much better use for women and girls if the labor was distributed equitably between all members of the family. For example, there would be more time for girls to do their school work or for women to work outside the home, positively benefiting the economy of the family unit.
This realization and confrontation with reality shook me to my core, drawing me to write this blog post for all of you back home. It is time to wake up from the ignorance of our water privilege. It is time to realize just how precious this resource is for all of earth’s inhabitants and to protect it for future generations. It is time to learn more about, advocate, and fight for water.
Want to Learn More?
If you are like me and are curious about the current state of water around the globe, there are many resources out there. One video I recommend watching is the Netflix’s “Rotten: Troubled Water” which delves into the bottled water industry in America and the water crisis in Nigeria. The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman is also a fascinating read, delving into the science of water, statistics about our water usage, and what water will look like for us in the future. If you are interested in helping families access water, consider donating to ELCA Global Mission. You will be aiding international partners, like my site placement, accompany their communities and advocate for water justice around the globe.
This blog post is taken from my January Newsletter.