Half century thirst still unquenched

In most cases it would be a dawn to dusk affair; while carrying some food or water would only make it too heavy to walk fast.

So we would go without food and water in a dense bush and forest before wild animals including lions, buffalos and elephants roamed the area well before dusk.
The best way to avoid them was to start early and walk fast enough so that by dusk would be in a village destination.

It didn’t matter which season it was; the wild animals would be there. It was worse during the rainy season because there would be heavy rain and floods. The path would be covered by deep and sometimes fast-flowing water.

People would travel to the neighbouring village only on emergency, or otherwise risk their lives in case they decided to travel. It is the time when water becomes a curse.

Though there would be no floods during dry season, the heat from sun would be scorching. Walking barefoot on a broad-day light sandy pathway would scald our feet to hell. Worse still is that we had neither water with us to drink nor a nearby village where we could ask for a drop.

On that day, my relative and I were too thirsty to brave the walk that we had to look for water, come what may. We spotted little water in a shallow elephant footprint at a nearby cluster of trees. Though the water had changed its colour and had formed a thin layer of oil on its surface, we slowly pushed the layer away to scoop the water into our mouths with our dirty hands. Having quenched our thirst, we walked on fast, aiming to recover the time we lost in search for water, toward the area famous for its handsome number of lions.

But the 50-year-old adventure is still haunting rural communities to-date, when they still have to worry about floods during the rainy season and water scarcity during the dry season. Still many challenges down the road.

Both rural and urban communities have to face challenges of diminishing water supplies and the little that is available is often polluted. They have to suffer from floods that destroy infrastructure (sometimes poorly built) in urban areas and that wash away crops and fertile soil in the rural areas. And all due to this monster known as climate change.

At the just ended Africa Ministers’ Conference On Water which was held in Dar es Salaam, participants discussed climate resilience and the water-energy nexus in the continent, highlighting the need to balance the use of water for energy production while taking into consideration the effects of climate change on water resources.

People need energy, but they also need water which is diminishing in supply by the seasons, due to climate change. Rainfall, which replenishes water bodies that supply water to communities, has also become unreliable. The situation is significantly affecting hydropower production.

Water does not stand alone in man’s quest to develop, let alone to live. There are other Sustainable Development Goals (MDGs). But there are other essential building blocks in reaching this target of meeting the challenges including integrity and good governance that cut across the MDGs.

This also means dealing with corruption that has denied millions of people in the world the right to clean and safe water. It is behind poor water infrastructure, high water tariffs for the poor, severe water pollution and inequitable sharing of water, to mention but a few.

The civil society should step up efforts to wipe out corruption, both grand and small, in order to ensure that the poor and the marginalized are not denied their right to clean and safe water. Water is a human right; water is life.

As public watchdogs CBOs, NGOs and other civil organisations should speak for everyone, defend everyone’ rights and mobilise all sections of society in order to build a strong force to fight corruption. It is all about political will and commitment to bring about change.

The bottom line is that there must be collective efforts to deal with the water challenges that seem to grow by the day with the aim of equitable sharing and instituting integrity and good governance in managing the resource.