We Go From One Water Crisis to Another

People here in Kiteto get water in a variety of ways. 

The rural poor take shovels to the river bed and dig holes until a puddle forms.  Then they scoop the water into small buckets and carry it home.  They often have short lifespans as water borne diseases take their inevitable toll.

Families who live in the town of Kibaya go to communal water pipes which are turned on three times a week.  The women gather around the tap, socialize while waiting, fill their plastic buckets and then carry them home on their heads.

Middle class people like us have big plastic SIM Tanks.  Three times a week the water supply is supposed to be turned on at the local authority office.  Then it flows through a pipe, to our part of town and fills our SIM tank.  When the water overflows from our SIM tank we know that it is full and then use the shut-off valve on the intake pipe to prevent water wastage.  Our SIM tank is about 15 feet above the ground and holds 500 liters; when it is full we have gravity fed running water.

Each part of town is on a different water schedule.  We are scheduled to get water three times a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Since we moved into this house at Christmas, things have not gone according to the district schedule.  Many, many times we just don't get water.  Our neighbours usually do though, and that makes things very demoralizing and stressful for us.  Their SIM tanks get filled and we see water flowing at the communal pipes. 

When it rains we collect the runoff from the roof of our house and go to ridiculous lengths to conserve the water that we do have. 

We have done everything we can think of to address this problem.  Our partners at the CERC, where our office is, have gone with us to the district water offices many times to help present our water problems.  Mr. Ndee has visited and phoned the offices for us on numerous occasions.  He has been very supportive.  Handshakes are exchanged and assurances are always given that we will get water according to the schedule.  We rarely do. 

When things get to a crisis situation, we once again go begging and cajoling to the district offices for our water supply to be turned on. 

Now, not even the begging is working.

I am not sure what else we can do, but I do know what we will not do.  These are lines in the sand which we will not cross. 

• Debra will not go to the communal tap and carry water home on her head.

•  I will not risk shredding my sciatica nerve by hauling water from our nearest neighbour, from the CERC or from the communal taps.

• We will not go to the river bed and dig down until a puddle forms.

• We will not share our colleague’s house again nor will we move into a motel room.

The thing is, our work here is going very well.  We are making real, solid progress with all of our projects.

Books are arriving from Canada for our Libraries in Boxes project, our Model Classroom project is nearing completion and we have just published Gab Fest, a book of very useful ESL lesson plans.  Twenty refurbished computers are due to arrive in Dar and are bound for Kibaya.  These computers have the potential to provide access to new skills and opportunity. 

The work with our primary school teachers is highly successful.  Our workshops are lively and well attended.  Workshops with our secondary school teachers are about to begin anew.  We respect the people we are working with and enjoy helping them.  We have formed many very solid relationships.

I invite our readers to provide us with some suggestions.  What should we do?