Earlier today I was feeling sorry for myself as I did not have one of those, a shot at that and lots f those over there that they have, when I came to myself and considered those who have less than I and are often happier than me. Folks in some African townships live in mud huts or tin shacks that I would consider somewhat less reliable at keeping out the rain than my landlord's roof. Others have to work 16 hours a day for little to make the constantly shrinking T-shirts that I buy, others toil in fields for the veg that I allow to rot because it is too much like work to cut it and use it.
One blatant suffering is that of water!
Some years ago a programme on TV gave the impression the next war would be caused by water, or the difficulty in sharing it. The vast amount of water that covers the earth is undrinkable and our limted technology will not allow us to make it drinkable, or at least will not pay to do so! Surely it must be possible to ensure each one of us can access clean drinking water wherever we are? It surely is but money, politics, selfishness and greed are probably the most likely causes in hindering delivery of clean water.
Of course some people try to supply the need. All across the globe governments can be found making decent attempts to supply such although too many do not and charities work tirelessly to provide in many places. This does not always work successfully however. Some years ago Oxfam, I think it was, spent vast sums drilling wells in Bangladesh and provided clean, safe water for the peoples. Soon afterwards it was discovered that ALL the water was contaminated with arsenic! This was because of a natural fault in the area and now those using the water have to add tablets of some unknown to me substance to counter the effects. Good try though.
Considering this I remembered a picture I took of a village pump some time back. This stands in Little Dunmow a few miles from here, a small probably expensive hamlet that once housed a huge church building, now considerably reduced. This Victorian looking pump was probably the main source of water for all the village for many centuries. It is possible farmers had their own well, for themselves and their animals, and maybe the pub brewed it's own beer from water found in a well, that seems likely to me. But I have not bothered to research as I was too busy contemplating my navel.
If I remember right the pump has since been done up and now is a different colour, it is some years since I took this picture, and it is clear the village has made it a centre piece and rightly so! The town had a pump well into the 19th century and a friend buying an old house noticed on original deeds from when the house was built that the owner had the right to use the pump two doors down! Sadly this has now gone.
As I sit in the bath - well on Sundays anyway - I contemplate the cost of every inch of water draining away (the draining water is charged at about 90% of the water costs, the crooks!) and consider myself lucky to have a bath, lucky to have water on tap and the money to pay for this instead of lugging bucketfulls (a woman's job) back to the house. Somewhere in Africa a woman is walking several miles to collect water each day, there is no guarantee it is clean either. How privileged we are to have so much.
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6 comments:
We did not having running water until I was a teenager in high school and at a very early age I learned to carry 2 buckets of water from the spring to fill our needs. So every time I turn on a faucet I feel Blessed as I know the tolls of trying to secure enough water for all the needs of a family of five. Do you realize the money the US has spent of Obama's folly (Solar Power) we could have used it to try and provide a way to clean the water of Mother Earth. They just okayed another 32 million and he has spent billions already. I really do not know if I country will survive another year of him. Peace
'Tis true...we are far more fortunate in so many ways than others elsewhere in Third World countries.
It's only when we have minor hiccups in our day to day routines; in the day to day things we've become used to and take for granted that we get a wake-up call. But once things get back to normal again, we soon forget...again.
I love the look of that old pump. We're having problems here on this property with the water pump at present...an electrical pump. We have our own water supply here and the electrician did a few tests on it yesterday, but now the pump "people" have to come...I think a new pump will be the order of the day. This has been an on-going problem for the past four weeks...one that should've been simply solved four weeks ago...if anyone had listened!!! (Something I referenced in a previous comment on one of your previous posts)!
Rather than deal with and fix problems in a simple manner some people (not me) love to turn everything into a three-ringed circus or a Cecil B. deMille production bigger than Ben Hur!! If you know what I mean! :)
We are indeed lucky.
Here, despite all the ongoing problems, we have water from the springs on the mountain behind...the poor devils in our area who have to rely on the public water service are lucky if they et water for four hours a day - or night - as repair and maintenance have been ignored for so long.
We have had an oversupply of water recently. At the moment it's sunny and clear blue above though. Our water comes from deep bore wells in the neighbourhood, back in the seventies, the oil and gas industry drilled around here, and didn't find oil, but struck into an aquifer. Tex, though, like so many places, has been pulling water out of the ground faster than it is replenished. In northern Texas, wells are running dry as the ground water sinks below the borehole levels.
We often get exhortations from our 'Municipal Utility District', telling us to save water, be green. The same district who, after a thunderstorm, are still watering the planted road margins. You'd think that they could fit a simple control to their sprinkler timers to tell them when watering is NOT needed.
Oh, we have the technology to desalinate seawater at a negligible monetary cost, but serving political interests is much more valuable to those in power on both sides of the Atlantic.
Lady, That is not good having to use a well until that time.
Lee, My landlord is OK but he also has a problem with spending cash! Things get bodged and not done properly but that is OK with me. As long as it is good enough I am happy.
Fly, I can see you with a jar on your head going to collect water from the spring daily, Leo sitting with the dogs while you do so.
Soub, Ah local councils and their directives! It varies not worldwide. We now have a vast Tory majority on the council claiming they will 'not abuse their power!' Aye right!
Jerry, Indeed, it is time this was begin especially in the USA.
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