I Walk for Water

 

I get up in the morning and turn on the tap.  Cool, clean water comes pouring out.  I take a shower, I brush my teeth, I make breakfast.  This is just the beginning of a day's use of water.  Water is so essential to our everyday activities and indeed our survival.  But many of us take it for granted.  What if you couldn't just turn on a tap?  What if we lived like so many in our world today who lack access to a safe water supply?  The United Nation reports that this is the case for 800 million people.  That is why safe water is one of the Millennium Development Goals.  It states a goal to "Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. 

FFHC went along with one of our program families in Tanzania as they made their daily walk for water.

The donkeys are loaded with empty containers.  Each person also carries a container to be filled with water.  They set out on together with their children and some neighbors.  Some families have to walk up to 2 hours to get water.  This family is lucky, the stream is less than a mile away though the road to get there is not an easy one.  The trip takes about an hour. 

The smooth dirt roads give way to more rocky terrain.

They make their way down the steep embankment to the river below.

The animals are watered before going further up stream.

Streams such as this one, provide water necessary for survival.  Unfortunately, it also harbors parasites and harmful bacterial.  Children are especially vulnerable to waterborne diseases.

The women fill their buckets from the same stream that watered their animals.   

 

 

 

 

 

 Children as young as 7 years old learn to carry water on their heads.  A 5 gallon bucket can weigh 30 pounds.   

 

 

The trip back home is more difficult due to the weight.  On this trip, one of the donkeys, which was pregnant, collapsed from the weight.  With no other choice, the precious water had to be dumped out. 

Villagers like this family make similar trips to streams several times a week.  Those that can afford to, make trips to community wells but must stand in long lines and pay for the water they use.  Today on World Water Day please be grateful for clean, safe water if you have it and join us in prayer for those for whom getting water is a constant struggle.  You can read more about World Water Day at www.UN.org/milleniumgoals