Water is life. Water has no substitute. Water has a soul. Water has a mind of its own. For those who live water-poverty lives, water is a luxury. I’m one of those people who live on edge as far as water goes, living a dirt-poor water life.
I’m writing this piece on this year’s World Water Day. For the past 18 years (since 1993), by a United Nations declaration, every 22nd March has been observed as World Water Day. The objective is to ensure that countries all over the world implement the necessary measures to protect water resources and promote activities that will make clean water accessible to all. I pray that this year’s World Water Day will bring a solution to Ghana’s water problems. Not!
Adenta’s Unique Story:
Let me introduce to you Adenta. It is a suburb of Accra, the capital city of Ghana. It is located in the far northern armpit of our sprawling capital, the city that seems to be ungovernable. It is densely populated because of the many estate houses and high-rise SSNIT flats. Adenta is inhabited by middle- to low-income folks, mostly workers. So of course, that includes lots of children.
Adenta used to be part of the Ashiaman/Tema Metropolitan Assembly. But about three years ago, it was hived off so it’s now a Municipal Assembly. With new demarcations and a re-birth, you would have thought that things will work out better. Not! Road net-work is pot-hole ridden. Water shortages are as they have has been since time immemorial, when Abraham was a school boy.
What is water-poverty?
You never fully appreciate water until you don’t have it. Water-poverty refers to the scarcity, insufficiency and poor quality of water. I’ve lived at Adenta for four World Water Days and have experienced nothing but water-poverty. I never know when the water people will decide to grace our taps with water. It could be once a week, once a month, or sporadically throughout the year. And it can flow for just 30 minutes, a full hour or a couple of hours. Periodically, the water quality looks so dirty that you wonder what you’re supposed to do with it.
And to insult the residents further, the Water Company folks religiously send monthly bills on paper that sneers at you and makes you realise that they don’t respect you.
Life in a water-poverty environment is lived very creatively, precariously and stressfully. Woe unto you if you have children and a water closet. Children, because they don’t fully get it; they just want to have fun with water but adults must control them by constantly preaching the gospel according to water-poverty. As for water closets, I wonder why we still place them in houses in water-deprived communities when a major ingredient in managing the funky contents of water closet is water.
Water-poor people get their water from sources that are holy and unholy, known and unknown. At Adenta, sale of water is big business. There are water tankers and ‘Tutu-tutu’ truck delivery folks who own the privileged right to grace us with water. ‘Tutu-tutu’ trucks are ugly un-photogenic contraptions, the closest to an Adenta invention of a motor vehicle. The site of them should make you wonder the source of their water.
I strongly suspect that the private business side of water at Adenta is at the heart of our water problems. Do these private business folks sabotage the public supply side of water? If the water problem is ever solved, they’ll be completely out of their thriving business. They won’t like that.
Another feature of water-poverty is the usual receptacles comprising of gallons, barrels, bowls and anything one can creatively imagine. I’ve asked water tankers and ‘Tutu-tutu’ truckers where they get their water from. They are so indirect and laughter-choked in their responses that it hurts me to continue asking.
And I worry about the quality of water I use. I fear when brushing my teeth (my family includes young children). My genuine fear is that one day (knock on wood!), we may contract a disease that is worse than cholera. A major challenge I face as a water-poor resident of Accra is taking a bath and washing clothes and cooking utensils.
Living a water-poor life is expensive. Water poor people pay more money for water than those who have the luxury of turning on their taps for water to flow luxuriously and effortlessly. The time it takes to search for water is annoying. The inconvenience of strategizing daily about how to ‘manage’ water takes too much out of time needed to think and to thrive and to just live.
Water is politics:
This is the frayed water-poverty ridden Adenta that unsuspecting President Mills, a resident of Spintex Road and now of the Osu Slave Castle, jumped into in his pronouncement during the state of the nation address to Parliament on 17th February 2011. He announced boldly that the Adenta water problem has been solved, clearly, posturing a bragging right over such a feat by his two-year old government. The NDC folks in Parliament applauded him.
At that very instant, an unidentifiable something in my stomach shifted position. Why? On that fateful day, I was so much out of water that my entire household used sachet water to bath; against everything I stand for because I advocate for the banning of single use plastics – plastics that will not decompose for some hundreds of years after I’m dead and gone.
In a developing country, water is highly political. Everything is political! About six months before the 2008 elections, there was evidence of the solution of Adenta’s intractable water shortage. Water, nice flowing water, began to flow from our hitherto dry taps. The experience was at once magical and heavenly. Flamboyant politicians came to the community for meetings and photo-opportunities, with the media trailing behind to offer cheap publicity. It was nice; really nice. We believed it. What we did not know was that we were being taken, badly.
Then, by February of 2009, suddenly, without the dignity of an announcement, the taps dried up and water stopped flowing for several months. It was as if draught had hit Adenta. It became apparent to us Adenta-folks that the pre-election water flow was meant to get residents to flock to the voting booths. That was clearly a case of water for politics!
Interestingly, right after President Mills’ laughable blooper last February, water begun to flow again – in the usual once a week gift. But for two weeks now, the magic has worn off; the taps have dried up again and stopped sneezing our water; just when the high-flying media attention ceased.
But on the bright side, my Adenta suddenly became news. Suggestion: if you want your community’s problem solved, find someone to plant false information in the President’s next major speech. With that mistake, your community should organize a media blitz to point out the error. With that pressure and the flashlight on the Presidential blooper, and therefore on your community, you stand a good chance of having the problem solved, albeit temporarily!
I’m writing this piece on this year’s World Water Day. For the past 18 years (since 1993), by a United Nations declaration, every 22nd March has been observed as World Water Day. The objective is to ensure that countries all over the world implement the necessary measures to protect water resources and promote activities that will make clean water accessible to all. I pray that this year’s World Water Day will bring a solution to Ghana’s water problems. Not!
Adenta’s Unique Story:
Let me introduce to you Adenta. It is a suburb of Accra, the capital city of Ghana. It is located in the far northern armpit of our sprawling capital, the city that seems to be ungovernable. It is densely populated because of the many estate houses and high-rise SSNIT flats. Adenta is inhabited by middle- to low-income folks, mostly workers. So of course, that includes lots of children.
Adenta used to be part of the Ashiaman/Tema Metropolitan Assembly. But about three years ago, it was hived off so it’s now a Municipal Assembly. With new demarcations and a re-birth, you would have thought that things will work out better. Not! Road net-work is pot-hole ridden. Water shortages are as they have has been since time immemorial, when Abraham was a school boy.
What is water-poverty?
You never fully appreciate water until you don’t have it. Water-poverty refers to the scarcity, insufficiency and poor quality of water. I’ve lived at Adenta for four World Water Days and have experienced nothing but water-poverty. I never know when the water people will decide to grace our taps with water. It could be once a week, once a month, or sporadically throughout the year. And it can flow for just 30 minutes, a full hour or a couple of hours. Periodically, the water quality looks so dirty that you wonder what you’re supposed to do with it.
And to insult the residents further, the Water Company folks religiously send monthly bills on paper that sneers at you and makes you realise that they don’t respect you.
Life in a water-poverty environment is lived very creatively, precariously and stressfully. Woe unto you if you have children and a water closet. Children, because they don’t fully get it; they just want to have fun with water but adults must control them by constantly preaching the gospel according to water-poverty. As for water closets, I wonder why we still place them in houses in water-deprived communities when a major ingredient in managing the funky contents of water closet is water.
Water-poor people get their water from sources that are holy and unholy, known and unknown. At Adenta, sale of water is big business. There are water tankers and ‘Tutu-tutu’ truck delivery folks who own the privileged right to grace us with water. ‘Tutu-tutu’ trucks are ugly un-photogenic contraptions, the closest to an Adenta invention of a motor vehicle. The site of them should make you wonder the source of their water.
I strongly suspect that the private business side of water at Adenta is at the heart of our water problems. Do these private business folks sabotage the public supply side of water? If the water problem is ever solved, they’ll be completely out of their thriving business. They won’t like that.
Another feature of water-poverty is the usual receptacles comprising of gallons, barrels, bowls and anything one can creatively imagine. I’ve asked water tankers and ‘Tutu-tutu’ truckers where they get their water from. They are so indirect and laughter-choked in their responses that it hurts me to continue asking.
And I worry about the quality of water I use. I fear when brushing my teeth (my family includes young children). My genuine fear is that one day (knock on wood!), we may contract a disease that is worse than cholera. A major challenge I face as a water-poor resident of Accra is taking a bath and washing clothes and cooking utensils.
Living a water-poor life is expensive. Water poor people pay more money for water than those who have the luxury of turning on their taps for water to flow luxuriously and effortlessly. The time it takes to search for water is annoying. The inconvenience of strategizing daily about how to ‘manage’ water takes too much out of time needed to think and to thrive and to just live.
Water is politics:
This is the frayed water-poverty ridden Adenta that unsuspecting President Mills, a resident of Spintex Road and now of the Osu Slave Castle, jumped into in his pronouncement during the state of the nation address to Parliament on 17th February 2011. He announced boldly that the Adenta water problem has been solved, clearly, posturing a bragging right over such a feat by his two-year old government. The NDC folks in Parliament applauded him.
At that very instant, an unidentifiable something in my stomach shifted position. Why? On that fateful day, I was so much out of water that my entire household used sachet water to bath; against everything I stand for because I advocate for the banning of single use plastics – plastics that will not decompose for some hundreds of years after I’m dead and gone.
In a developing country, water is highly political. Everything is political! About six months before the 2008 elections, there was evidence of the solution of Adenta’s intractable water shortage. Water, nice flowing water, began to flow from our hitherto dry taps. The experience was at once magical and heavenly. Flamboyant politicians came to the community for meetings and photo-opportunities, with the media trailing behind to offer cheap publicity. It was nice; really nice. We believed it. What we did not know was that we were being taken, badly.
Then, by February of 2009, suddenly, without the dignity of an announcement, the taps dried up and water stopped flowing for several months. It was as if draught had hit Adenta. It became apparent to us Adenta-folks that the pre-election water flow was meant to get residents to flock to the voting booths. That was clearly a case of water for politics!
Interestingly, right after President Mills’ laughable blooper last February, water begun to flow again – in the usual once a week gift. But for two weeks now, the magic has worn off; the taps have dried up again and stopped sneezing our water; just when the high-flying media attention ceased.
But on the bright side, my Adenta suddenly became news. Suggestion: if you want your community’s problem solved, find someone to plant false information in the President’s next major speech. With that mistake, your community should organize a media blitz to point out the error. With that pressure and the flashlight on the Presidential blooper, and therefore on your community, you stand a good chance of having the problem solved, albeit temporarily!
No comments:
Post a Comment