Water Shortage Becoming Serious

The lack of water in our area, particularly drinking water, has become more visible over the past several days. For a few weeks now we have dealt with decreasing water pressure from community taps, eventually leading to about an hour-per-day trickle during the last week. And today, there was no water in the village ... at all. While the reasons for this shortage are not entirely known, we have our hypotheses.



During the winter months our village was lucky enough to get training from the municipality on installing water piping and taps. About 25 local young adults took part in this training and then put their new skills to use by installing approximately 10 new taps in the village. We were fortunate to have a new pipeline dug right in front of our main gate. With Mma Kgonyane's motivation to acquire everything that she can get her hands on, she hired a few men to have a pipe run into our compound just a few days later and a new tap installed (with a few Rand from her pocket).

As it wasn't getting unbearably hot just yet, the desire for water in the village wasn't at its yearly peak. Water was fairly plentiful when the taps were first installed. Mma would literally leave the tap in our yard on 24/7. The water was always being used for something ... cows, garden, bathing, lawn, etc. She was determined to get the most out of the new tap and most of all, the fact that it was still free municipality water. While Rachel and I struggled to see that as a responsible action on her part in terms of conservation, who can blame her? If she didn't take full advantage of it, others in the village would have anyways.



Now fast forward a few months. We have had probably 10 days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit this spring already and the ground is continually getting more and more dry. The rivers in the area are empty and many local bore holes are pulling nothing from the depths of this red soil. The consumption of water in our village has steadily increased with the rise in temperatures and the use of water for gardens has done just the same. It seems to be a simple problem: the demand is growing higher than the supply can manage. There is just no water left from the source that our village draws from, a new reservoir up on the mountain. The pump that feeds the reservoir is coming from the nearby Palala River, but the river is useless at this point it seems ... even meters below the dried riverbed.

Today water seemed to be the focus of all attention in our village (aside from the new shebeen that just reopened). Not a single tap in the entire village was yielding meetse (water). A few homes are lucky to have bore holes that are still operational, and they were selling salty, undrinkable water by the barrel. People don't have drinking water. Animals are being neglected. Crops are losing any hope that once seemed so bright. It's becoming a serious problem and has us worried. Rachel and I are more concerned for the village's sake than our own. The Peace Corps will bail us out if need be. We have that safety net, but no one else does.



So that's the problem. Now we're concerned with the solution. The only real option in my mind - a heavy rainfall in the forecast. But there isn't one, and we have no expectation of one anytime soon. But we're praying for rain, and ask that you do the same. It won't take much to replenish this earth and bring new life to the community. We would really like to see that happen before we pack our bags in less than two months. Right now we are in no position to leave this village as is - it just wouldn't seem fair.