If you are like most people, you are probably thinking “what a stupid question – I get water from my tap of course†but not all individuals are that lucky. Many millions of people all over the world live with water scarcity and have to source water from nature.
According to the United Nations (UN), only 42% of individuals in rural areas had access to clean water in 2004. Things have improved somewhat since, with global efforts to ensure that everyone has access to clean water and hygienic sanitation, but there is still a long way to go.
How Do You Source Water?
While you and I and billions of others in the developed world are lucky enough to be able to turn open a tap whenever we want a drink of water or a bath, shower or to do washing, food preparation or cooking or for personal hygiene reasons, many are not that fortunate.
IN Africa, many women and girl-children walk many kilometres every day just to get a few litres of water for use by the family. This often relates into a lack of education because the young girls spend so much time fetching water that they miss out on schooling, and the circle of poverty is continued as without education they have no chance of a better life.
The Hamar of Ethiopia walk extremely long distances in search of water, in gruelling temperatures, which is really counterproductive as carrying water is tough. Water is very heavy, and carrying it for long distances is a rather inefficient way to get drinking water as the trip makes one sweat and dehydrate.
Women and children from the Tubu tribe who go to market face a journey of around eight days through the desert in temperatures that can top 45 degrees. They rely on navigational skills passed down from generation to generation and navigate using the stars to find their only hope of sustenance; a singular well along the way. They had better remember its location or they will die of heatstroke and thirst.
The Samburu people of Kenya rely on the skills of wild elephants during times of water scarcity for their amazing ability to detect underground water, taking what they need from the shallow wells that the elephants leave behind after drinking their fill. The Samburu believe that no living thing should die in agony from lack of water, so they thank the elephants by filling troughs of water in the villages for them to drink from.
The Chileans of the Atacama Desert, on the other hand, wait for water to come to them – the wind blowing across the Pacific draws up water from the sea into a thick fog which then moves over the coastline and is caught by the lichen on cacti on the shore, and condenses into water that the animals drink. Locals took their cue from this occurrence and set massive nets along the hills that trap the fog as it rolls across the desert, and the condensed water runs through pipes set up to deliver life-giving water to the villages below.
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