Water crises

[katemn]

I'm not sure if it's made national news or not, it's certainly made state news, and that is that the water system in Alamosa has been contaminated with salmonella.  Salmonella, as you know, is a nasty bug that causes diarrhea, stomach cramps and high fever, and can cause death in infants, the elderly, and anyone with a weakened immune system.    The governor has declared Alamosa County in a State of Emergency.

My husband and father in law, water experts both, know Alamosa's system well and have their own theories as to how this could have happened.  But that's not the point here.  The point here is that residents in Alamosa are having to purchase bottled water or boil water, or go to an outlying area to get clean water to use for drinking, cooking, and brushing teeth.  On Tuesday morning at 9 am, the water system will be flushed with chlorine, a process that will take up to two weeks.  The water will not be safe to use for any reason during that time, so residents are being asked to stock up.  This water crisis is certainly making it inconvenient, to say the least, for life in Alamosa, and quite dangerous for some.  One of the teachers I work with was affected by the disease and took a couple of sick days before he found out what it was.

Luckily, the inconvenience, hassle, and worry will be over in a couple of weeks.  No one will die, and those who have gotten sick will get better because they have been able to obtain immediate, top-quality medical care.   Outlying businesses and private citizens will be providing free access to water taps and faucets for residents on the city water system.

Can you imagine living with a water crisis like this for your entire life?  What would your outlook be?  What choices would you make?  But, let's take away top-quality medical care and replace it with a clinic in the bush that is understaffed and undersupplied.  Now let's take away everyone's vehicles, paved roads, and indoor plumbing.  Now what choices would you make?

Next, let's remove a cultural system that does not have a strict division of labor and where men's and women's contributions to the economy and to family life are valued fairly equally, and replace it with one where men make contributions to the household income and women do all the child-rearing, gathering wood and water, and cooking and cleaning. 

Lastly, let's yank away any honest source of income men might have, and then see what shakes down.

What you end up with, is this, a typical day in the life of 1.1 billion people, a majority of women and children, worldwide:

The women wake up at around 3am.  They get the children ready, which is to say they simply wake them up and hand them a bucket.  There is no getting dressed or putting shoes on, for there are no other clothes or shoes.  Young girls may have to carry a baby as well as their bucket, while the mother carries a two- or three-year old.   They quietly leave the village and begin walking down a dirt path, barefoot, each carrying an empty container such as a large bowl, bucket, gas can, or cat litter tub. 

Once the women are out of the village and the sun is beginning to come up, they might begin to look on nearby fruit trees for their breakfast.  Later on, when the sun has risen and the day is turning bright and hot, they might begin singing, that is, if the children are not fussing and their feet or backs do not hurt too badly. 

Around 7 am, they reach their water source, which is a depression in an old river bed that collects water steadily in the wet seasons.  In the dry season, there may or may not be water present there, so the women make extra trips to prepare for the shortfall.  

Animals drink from this source, as well as birds.  Fecal matter is washed down the slope into the water.   The women form a line and each one dips their bucket full.

They turn to leave, back down the same route they have come, to make the 3 1/2 hour walk back to their village.  They are already weary from the trip out, and now they must each carry around forty pounds of water, on their heads as is the cultural norm, back to the village where the men wait.   It does no good to ask the village chief to move the village closer to the water source, because he is the chief and he has decided the village must be where it is.

By the time they return home, the sun is high in the morning sky.  The women set down their buckets and pick up lengths of cloth, for they must now go out and gather firewood. 

One of the women has not made the trip today.  Because she has not gone, it means that her family will lack the water she would have been able to bring back.  She is at home, worried and caring for her sick three-year-old daughter.   Her daughter has been up all night with diarrhea and stomach cramps.  The little girl is starting to get pale and lethargic, and the mother has a knot at the pit of her stomach.  She has seen this before, because her cousin's small child died after such symptoms.   She is trying to decide if it is worth asking the chief to loan her his rickety old truck to take the girl to the clinic, a two days' drive away from the village. 

Meanwhile, the men sit and discuss the weather.  Past generations of men would have been out roaming the bush, looking for animals to kill and bring home, or in recent years, they would have piled into a truck and gone to work for the white farmer, whose modern, mechanized farm needed labor.   But recent political unrest has made it unsafe for whites to stay in the country, so when the farmer left, he left his farm to decay, and there was no more work for the men.   The  men are stripped of their dignity, and their families are left destitute, dependent on the meager bounty of their surrounding area and help from aid agencies based in Western countries.

The women carefully measure out a cup of water for each child and pour some into their cooking pots.  They keep from splashing or spilling even a single drop.  If the children are lucky, they may have a small dish of water where everyone can wash their hands and faces, but only at the end of the day. 

The women are up late cleaning the pots and readying their households for sleep, and the sick child is getting worse--her pulse is racing and she is having difficulty breathing and will not move. 

In the morning the women will make the seven-hour trip to get water again.  There is no option to stay at home, because if there is no water for their families, they will not eat or survive. 

The women's feet have a thick callous layer.  Their spines are twisted, even the young girls'.  They have never learned to read or write or do math because their job of bringing water to their families takes so much time.   They do not have any idea of the world that exists even twenty miles from their village.  Nor can they even conceive of the world on the other side of the globe where people wait frustratedly in line, SUVs idling, to get water out of a tap at the local park, or buy bottled water brought in by truck to the local WalMart.  These women and children can't even begin to think of a world where people sit inside centrally heated brick houses and complain because their tap water will be chlorinated for several days and they will not be able to take their daily twenty minute shower or run their dishwasher.  

I know for a fact there are lots of generous people in Alamosa willing to do anything to help others get through this tough situation.   Plenty of other people are cheerfully obtaining clean water and getting on with their lives as best they can, praying for a speedy resolution to the crisis.  Anyone who wishes may come to our house and get water from our well.  I pray for your safety and well-being.

But I do think each situation, the one here in Alamosa, and the scene I pictured above which plays out every day in rural villages around the world, requires a sense of compassion, willingness to act, and a recognition that we are all God's children, united by our desire to live in peace and raise healthy familes.  

What can you do to help or learn more?  Follow these links.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=alamosa+water&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=news_result&resnum=1&ct=title  (Google: "alamosa water")

www.lifewater.org

www.livingwater.org

http://www.water.org/waterpartnersvillage

http://runningdry.org/action.html

[MommaK2007]

Mar. 30, 2008 at 8:19 AM Kate, is this over yet?  Have people become ill?

[KCHopkins]

Mar. 30, 2008 at 10:40 PM I did read this when you posted it.  My kids did a thing with sunday school to raise money for Blood Water Missions.  My mom's good friend has a charity called Just Hope International (my mom is on the board) that brings clean water systems to villages in South America and Africa.  It is a very real problem and a resource we all take for granted. 

[katemn]

Mar. 30, 2008 at 11:09 PM

Update:

217 people became ill, including a teacher I work with.  My friend's (ebf) baby was the first to become ill.   Twin newborns had to be flown out on Flight for Life to Denver. 

They are treating the water with chlorine, and are at stage 2 (swimming pool strength) probably about now.

The church we used to go to and left because nobody did anything is giving away free water and has a big sign outside that says Free Water.  Praise God.

Other folks, including outlying residents and a hotel, are offering free water or free showers.  The crisis has brought out a lot of good in people. 

This too, shall pass.  Meanwhile, it's worth thinking about the billion or so people whose water crisis will not pass any time soon. 

(Original Poster)

[tressa260]

Mar. 31, 2008 at 10:18 AM You've made me cry. Thanks for sharing this story. 

[KarateBoMom]

Apr. 2, 2008 at 9:48 PM I admire your strength and willingness to see beyond your own situation in your time of crisis.I hope your friend's baby is okay and I am glad that you and your family did not fall ill.  It saddens me sometimes to think that it takes something like this to put people into action!  Thank you for so eliquently sharing a piece of your life.