Regarding: November 9 - November 11th, 2016
Written while listening to "Hamilton". I've become obsessed.
My thoughts on the Ugandan water situation:
At 4:30 AM after landing…
"Also, so there's no drinking water in this building, which I don't think will be an issue in the long run, but right now it's kind of odd because I didn't fill up my water bottle and I'm thirsty."
1 day later…
"Drinking water is SUCH a valuable resource. Not having drinking water has really driven that home for me."
Now…
Yeah, so drinking water is like. A big deal man. And not even drinking water, just water in general. I'll be candid and admit that my house has running water (and a western toilet and shower and sink… #PoshCorps anybody?), so I don't really deal with the whole water situation on a day to day basis. But sometimes the water does run out, especially during dry season, so I have had some exposure to what it feels like to be without water.
Let me start with drinking water.
In Uganda, Peace Corps tells us not to drink the water from the taps or the boreholes. Now, I see Ugandans drinking this water and it must not make them sick or I presume they wouldn't do it, but I've never done it and probably never will. If you're really curious I suggest you come and try it yourself.
"So Laura, what do you drink?"
Water. Always.
"K. That clears things up."
Here's how:
At both training sites there were two huge 5-gallon water jugs on our compound that were constantly full. One was located in the kitchen and one was in the training hall. Most people, myself included, walked around with Nalgene water bottles and we could just fill up whenever we were low. Of course, if you didn't fill up before the kitchen and training hall closed (around ~9:00 PM) you were kind of SOL for the night.
At home-stay, Peace Corps gave us 1.5 L of bottled water every day which… was interesting because a fun quirk of many Ugandan homes is that people don't go out to the bathroom at night. Weird. Isn't everyone down to wander out to a pit latrine in the pitch black in an area guarded by dogs? Well my host family certainly wasn't (and they didn't even have dogs). In fact, they locked us all in the house after dark. So this was me on my first night.
Me: What if you have to use the restroom after dark?
My host mom: Do you have a bucket?
Me: Haha
My host mom: …?
Me: …
Me: Ah.
Well I didn't have a bucket, but I did have 6 empty Rwenzori water bottles.
This is not gross. This is #PEACECORPS. No shame. Except maybe that first night. Have I mentioned how much I love my Western toilet?
Ok anyway. I've gotten sidetracked. So PC provided drinking water for the entirety of our training. For site, we were given two huge buckets and a Sawyer water filtration system. About once a week, I put one bucket under my sink, fill it up, and then put the second bucket underneath and let the water just drip through the filter. I've included pictures of my water set up below.
When I'm filling up and filtering water (usually 1x a week):
What it usually looks like:
I brought a handheld Sawyer filtration system...
...but I've never used it. Peace Corps has your back for stuff like that.
For fun, you can see what it's like not to have drinking water by filling up a bucket in one area of the house and only drinking out of that (even when at work). It's not awful, but it definitely makes you appreciate the little things... like drinkable tap water.
Anyway, all of this to say. If you love being able to get drinkable water from 3 different places in your house, then #TakeBackTheTap and look for appliances that conserve water.
So yeah, that's how drinking water has worked for me in Peace Corps. When the water goes out I can buy water bottles (up to 5L) at the duka (small shop) across from my school or from the super markets in town.
Wait I'm sorry. You said "when the water goes out"? What?
Yeah that's a thing that happens. Especially during dry season. This is a good time to transition from drinking water to water in general so let's do that.
At my site, my house has a large water tank outside my door. Picture below.
A company pumps water in in from outside my compound through pipes which lead to this tank, and then from the tank into my house. I pay monthly for the water I use. Some volunteers have water tanks but they rely on rainwater to fill up and, of course, some volunteers have no running water at all.
With externally sourced water, sometimes there isn't enough water for everyone. So for 2 - 4 days at a time, I won't have any water pumped to my tank. To get around this, the tank should fill up when there is water available, shut off automatically, and store enough water to last me for about a month. So, in theory, I should never be out of water.
There are… complications though. Kids climb up on the tower and turn the water off as they're playing (which they've stopped doing). The pipes break. The neighbors… ahem. "Borrow" my water (which they've also stopped doing). The shut-off valve breaks and the tank overflows and I have to turn the water off (which it has not stopped doing). So yeah there are times when I don't have any water.
When the water is out for one reason or another, there is a borehole roughly 75 meters away. I can get water from the borehole by filling up plastic jerry-cans (pictured below).
Jerry cans carry 20 liters of water (5 gallons) and weigh (when full)… - guess here-
20 kg or 44.09 pounds!!
If you want to test out what it feels like not to have running water, carry 5 gallons of water 1/4 of a way around a track. Or longer.
Congrats. You, as an individual, have enough water for 1 day.
Your family is in trouble though.
It truly is amazing how much water we use every single day. Let's talk about water usage. A liter or two for drinking (for one person), and then laundry, cooking, cleaning, bathing, using the restroom... I actually went to https://water.usgs.gov because I got curious as to how much water the average person uses per day, and the number is 80 - 100 gallons a day.
That is twenty trips with the jerry-can just for one person. If you had a family of 4, you'd have to make eighty trips a day carrying ~50 lbs.
That seemed impossible to me, but lo and behold here's a table detailing our water usage:
If you're like me, you might read this and say "Ok, well I don't do that" or "I certainly don't do it every day". And sure, maybe not, but even thinking I might use 10 gallons of water a day, that's crazy when I have to transport it myself. (Confession: I don't actually transport it myself. I'll pay a neighborhood kid. But it's still a lot of water being moved.)
And I know I do use at least 10 gallons a day normally. When I'm out of water, I go into hyper water-conservative mode and I don't flush the toilet, do laundry or clean the house. I also begin to buy my drinking water from a store. Even with these measures, I'll go through 1 jerry-can daily minimum. That's at least 5 gallons a day, and usually it's closer to 7. I use 7 gallons daily just with bucket bathing, dishes and maybe a solitary toilet flush if things get desperate. (Note: flushing the toilet alone uses between 2-4 gallons of water. Ahh.)
Laura, what do Ugandans do?
Excellent question!
I can't speak for all Ugandans, but let me tell you how my host family lived without running water. 1 bucket = ~2 gallons.
1. Bathing - Bucket baths!
Bucket baths will be a post in its own right, but it's very self-explanatory. Fill up a bucket with water, throw some over yourself to get yourself wet, lather up, and scoop water over your body to rinse off.
Water used: 2 gallons
2. Laundry - By hand
Laundry is all washed by hand which uses between 1-3 buckets / "load" of laundry. 1 bucket with soapy water for washing, and 1-2 buckets of non-soapy water for rinsing.
Water used: 2 - 6 gallons
3. Toilets - Pit Latrines
Pit latrines are basically outhouses and don't require any water at all! Just find the hole and pop a squat.
Water used: N/A
4. Cleaning
My host family swept and mopped their house every day. I was very impressed. I'd say they used between 1-2 buckets for mopping. Mopping is done with a rag that is dipped into the bucket, dragged across the floor by hand, and then dunked in the bucket again.
Water used: 2-4 gallons
5. Cooking
Cooking is pretty much the same as in America. I'll round to 1 bucket, but just however much someone would use for making a big pot of beans, potatoes, and posho (kind of the same cooking process as rice).
Water used: 2 gallons
6. Drinking
1 - 2 liters. That's rounding up because I've found that I tend to drink much more water than the Ugandans around me, but I'd say no more than 1/2-1/4 of a bucket. Let's say 1/4 of a bucket per person, so 1 bucket for a family (being generous).
Water used: 2 gallons
Total water: 10-16 gallons (2-3 jerry-cans) / daily / family
That's still a lot of water, but it's certainly more manageable than 80-100 gallons (16-20 jerry-cans) / person. My host family had two giant barrels of water that they would refill from the borehole 2-3 times a week. They probably had 20+ jerry-cans to transport water from the borehole to their house. Another perspective, one of my site-mates doesn't have running water, and her neighbors recommend she have at least 6 jerry-cans full of water on hand for 1 person.
So I guess the short answer is that Ugandans use less water, keep a large store at all times, and visit the borehole often (almost every other day). Fetching water, especially for women and children, is a big part of daily life.
So there's my not so mini take on water!
Cliff notes: I don't really deal with the water issue on a day to day basis, we use a ton of water, and water is valuable.
Thanks for reading, and please feel free to shoot me a message if you have any questions!
