What Can YOU Tell ME About YOUR Water?

Water is, by far, my biggest hardship in my site. Water is brought to my site though a very intricate series of garden hoses that start at the river and run though my town. But do not be tricked, like I was, into thinking the hoses start in my town. Oh no they start in the town above mine. Why is this? Pretty sure the town above mine pollutes the river just as much as we do. And shall we even mention the pig farm runoff that comes from the two towns up?

Step One: Connect hoses at host families house

Step Two: Connect second set of hoses 

When I need water for my pila, I go next door to my host families house and connect their hose to one that runs to my house. As I am walking back to my house I connect another hose that will either run to my pila or to a barrel at their house. I then get back to my house and make sure there is some type of filter (read: old rag) over the end of my hose because ants have been known to build their nest inside and, come-on, it’s river water, it for sure needs to be filtered. I then wait until my pila is full. This does not usually take a long time, maybe 30 min. A full pila will last me about 4 days.

Ok so when it rains really hard (or if some animal decides the hoses look fun to play with), often the hoses will come apart. My host dad will start walking along the hose until he finds the problem. This takes any where from 30 min to 3 hours depending on how far away the break is. And depending on how busy my host dad is, it can take several days for him to go find the problem.

I did a charla with my Women’s Group a couple of weeks ago about water and the importance of clean water. I took a bucket of water (that represented the river that runs though my town) and added bleach and laundry detergent, explaining that these things are added to the river water every time someone does their laundry. I added a bag of dirt showing how, especially during the rainy season, erosion causes the river to become extra saturated with dirt. I then added some plastic trash, because the river is everyone’s trashcan, right? And lastly I added cow manure, because, well, the cows go wild here and poop where they please.

I don’t want to gross anyone out, but I really want you to get a true sense of my water situation down here. One third of my community is also lacking in latrines. The majority of these families live down by the river and do not have sufficient space for a latrine. Guess where they go… If you guessed El Rio, you are correct. So just add that to the menagerie of things already polluting the river. Yum.    

A couple of weeks ago I had two volunteers tell me they would have ETed (early terminated their service) if they had been placed in my site. Lets recap: Pig farm run off, laundry in the river, trash, human waste, dirt, and a series of unreliable garden hoses that bring the water to my pila... sometimes. Fantastic.

My pila water today.

 Today I have water, and it is brown. Yesterday I did not have water, my pila was empty. I spent four days with out water and now that I have it I cannot even pretend it is clean. This is my reality for two years, but for the people in my community it has been a reality their whole lives. This is the water most people in my community drink. I am lucky enough to be able to afford clean drinking water. Unless something is done, it will continue to be their reality.

I am looking into a water project or at least a water filter project. Both are expensive and a water project usually takes a minimum of 3 years. So we will see.

Two-fer: Hoja sitting by a retired wood burning oven
 and the excess hose for when sections  need
 to be replaced 

Also there is a country wide shortage of this stuff called Abate. You put Abate in your pila to keep mosquitos from laying their eggs, as pilas are the epitome of stagnant water. So, because dengue is such a huge problem here and we are still in the rainy season, the health department is fumigating communities. My community was fumigated a couple of days ago, it was kind of surreal that people are allowed to remain in the communities while this is going on. Also that the men fumigating did not wear gas masks, while they fumigated in and outside peoples homes. Another crazy observation is that people did not leave their homes or even stop what they were doing while their homes were being fumigated. No reason to stop making tortillas just because someone is pumping hazardous chemicals into your home. I would have left my town, but we are on day five of standfast. Peace Corps activates standfast when there is some kind of threat. The current threat is rain. It has been raining nonstop for the past 5 days. Not so much where I am, but other parts of the country are completely flooded. So no leaving site, even if it is full of toxic chemicals. Don't worry I was told the side effects are mild, just lightheadedness and vomiting...

Is their house on fire? Nope, just fumigating...

Take this picture and now imagine my entire
community looking like this.