A friend for life

Even in that case, here in Dar es Salaam water is often just a phone call away. You see a lot of big blue water trucks driving around which fill up the tanks that most people have at their house. On the country side however obtaining water is a completely different story….

It sounds like a sentence straight out of a fundraising commercial for a random African country, but it is true: most people here have to walk for multiple kilometers through the burning heat to obtain water. Especially now in the dry season water is hard to find in some places. On fieldtrips I’ve often seen people disappear into deep holes in dried up river beds to fill up their buckets. As men are often out in the field herding the animals, it is mostly women and children that have to carry these buckets back home on their heads. So you’ve just walked a couple of kilometers through the heat, dug a hole, filled your bucket and now have to walk back with twenty kilos of half decent water on your head and of course it is still about 30 to 40 degrees.

I would think twice about going out the night before if that’s what it takes to get some water. I would also think twice about eating my food prepared with this water and sending my children to school if they could be fetching water for me instead while I go looking for firewood. Of course I am still working for the World Food Programme, but we cannot ignore the huge need for water. First of all, it is impossible to prepare good food without good water.  Secondly, because that need keeps children from going to school.

This is why I am currently working to allocate a budget made available by TNT and USAID to make sure that there is good water for the schools that need it the most. I am happy I am able to make a positive change for these children and hopefully after reading this you’ll be even happier when you wake up feeling a little dehydrated and find your chrome friend waiting for you.