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Clean Water and Sanitation
Clean Water and Sanitation is essential – a necessary resource in just about every aspect of human life. Neil deGrasse Tyson said, “Where there’s water on Earth, you find life as we know it.”
According to research by the World Health Organization, an average person requires approximately 20 litres of water per day. This includes water for food preparation, drinking and hygiene needs. Although we take water for granted in the Western World, the question may be asked, does this apply to every country, region, city or even every household?
Sadly, many people do not have easy access to clean water and sanitation. Some of the reasons for this include over-population, poor quality water, or simply lack of water sources nearby.
Dzaleka Refugee Camp
I saw many many children in the camp in dirty, tattered clothing. I could only assume that they hadn’t been washed in a week or possibly longer. It was obvious to me was that the drainage system in place for most of the “bathrooms” was far from adequate.
Clean Water and sanitation are crucial when trying to deal with health problems and diseases such as cholera. However, from what I observed, there is generally poor sanitation amongst many of households in the camp.
Boreholes
The 46,800 refugees who live in Dzaleka refugee camp share access to about 15 clean water sources. The majority of which are boreholes. Finding a clean water source is not the big problem at Dzaleka. Many households are only around 200-300 meters away from a functional borehole. However, the real problem is – at what time should I go at the borehole? For how many hours should I wait to get clean water for my family’s needs?
Some people wake up as early as 2 or 3am in order to get to the borehole before it becomes crowded. Anyone who comes shortly after that may have to wait for as long as 4 or 5 hours, or maybe even longer. This is because of the queues that have now formed at almost every borehole in the camp.
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Personal Experiences – Rosa
Rosa Amani Esther is a Congolese woman who lives with 11 of her family at Dzaleka. She is a widow who fled from Congo due to increasing insecurity. She shed some light on how difficult it is to get clean water in Dzaleka refugee camp. Rosa told me, “I have to wake around 2am just to get water. But mostly if I come at a such a time, I still don’t get all my water until around 8 or 9 am”.
I couldn’t help but wonder how old she is. What must she go through almost every day – just to get water. She went on to explain how cold it can be in the wee hours of the morning, waiting to use the borehole. She doesn’t have any choice, but to force herself out into the cold weather to have water for her and her family.
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Rosa and her family require around 140 litres of water on a normal day – simply for domestic purposes. This means she must carry seven 20l buckets from the borehole. On a day when the family needs to do laundry, this goes up to around 400l of water in order to sustain the house.
So, the 7 buckets on a normal day goes up to around 20 buckets on laundry day. But each household is limited to only 7 buckets per day. Rosa told me that “sometimes if we use water carelessly, we spend the whole night without a drop of water in the house”. She was cleaning the dishes from the previous night when she told me this.
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The situation is even more of a challenge for her because of her age. Rosa is in her early 60s but still must stand in the queue for more than 4 hours at a time, something she is worried about for her own health.
Rosa suggested to me that more boreholes could be a permanent solution to the problem. More boreholes would shorten the queues and would also mean that people would not need to travel as far. In the meantime, Rosa feels that she continues to put her own health at risk in order to provide for her family due to limited availability of clean water and sanitation facilities in the camp.
A male perspective – William
I wanted to get another perspective, this time perhaps a male voice would sound different from what I had heard Rosa say. I wanted to understand what it is like for a man to see his wife leaving home at such a time just to get water.
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William Iyango is another Congolese national and a local faith leader. He is a founder of a charity organization which looks after orphans in the camp. William says that the problems caused by lack of clean water and sanitation n the camp are unbearable. He agreed with Rosa that the women are the most vulnerable in this crisis. The extreme circumstance are even causing families to be broken up due to the problems caused by lack of water. “Sometimes there are issues of unfaithfulness that arise within the family. Some women have taken advantage of the situation. Women sometimes end up meeting other men and know that they have an excuse to tell their husband if he asks where they have been in the night”. William says he knows of some marriages which have ended because the husband found out what has been going on with his wife.
Orphan Care
William went on to tell me about the situation at the orphanage he operates. They need water to clean the classrooms where children learn. More importantly they need it to prepare the meals for the orphans daily.
The problems concerning lack of clean water and sanitation affect the children’s attendance at school. “Sometimes children can spend half the day at the borehole trying to get water so that they can take a bath before coming to school. I can’t send the child home for being late for class. I know what it takes to get water” he said. William added that sometimes fights can break out at the boreholes. This is due to the overcrowding and everybody trying to get their water first. He agrees with Rosa that the addition of water sources in the camp could be of real assistance. The women and girls would greatly benefit as they are at the forefront of fetching water for their families.
The issue of poor sanitation due to inadequate water drainage systems remains a challenge that needs to be dealt with in the camp. There are many places with stagnant water that are a breeding grounds for mosquitos. This greatly increases the chances of getting malaria. And there is the laundry problem. It’s understandable why, with all of these challenges to get clean water, somebody might decide just to put up with dirty clothes for a few more days!
Editor’s Note: Part of the proceeds of every sale of Fresh Hand Roasted Coffee goes to support the work of our charity partner Southern Africa Literature Trust who sponsor various aspects of orphan relief and similar projects at Dzaleka
Originally published on A Hug in a Mug
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