The Planeteer’s Introduction to Water and Sanitation

Have you ever wondered what water truly means to you? Thought about what it would mean if you didn't have access to water on a daily basis? How about clean drinking water?

As a Californian  

I’ve grown up in sunny California my whole life and as much as I love my so-called “golden” state, we’ve definitely had our fair share of water resource management problems. Water use and access in California are often subjects of great controversy and beget bitter sentiments from democrats, republicans, farmers, students, mothers, fathers, and the list goes on and on. As a Brit, you’ve probably seen the agricultural sector of California’s central and inland valley marred by water conservation efforts due to drought remediation interventions. Every time I drive on the Interstate-5 towards San Francisco, I see “Solve the Water Crisis” or “Is Growing Food Wasting Water” billboards littering the side of the highway. Even my family has suffered the costs of California’s water crisis. Our utility bills have slowly climbed in the past 5 years. Our once manicured green front lawn has now been converted to artificial grass. Occasionally, the county asks us to turn off our sprinklers so during long periods of drought, my dog’s grassy lawn turns into a patch of dirt. My family now collects shower water to nourish our fruit trees - the only water-intensive plants sitting in our backyard. Living in California has shown me that water, both as a commodity and as part of our earth’s ecosystem services, is pivotal to the well-being of a nation. The water crisis pervades all corners of the world, no matter a country’s development index or GDP per capita.  Granted, the level at which it affects an individual varies quite drastically but nevertheless, it is an ubiquitous problem.

Image 1: Billboards along the I-5 Freeway

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7182786/mediaviewer/rm840785664

As a Planeteer

During this past summer, I worked in Uganda for 2 months at several of Dr. Jane Goodall’s field sites and was able to get a small glimpse into the daily lives of health workers in rural villages. In the Masindi District of Uganda, the majority of the population lives in the rural outskirts, where their main sources of water are either boreholes, streams, or ponds. When driving from Masindi town into nearby parishes, such as Kasenene or Nyatonzi, you’ll first pass a small pond. The small pond serves a variety of purposes, from cleaning cars and trucks to washing clothes and household linens. Along the edges of the pond, you’ll see goats and other livestock drinking water. This pond seems to be sustained by rainwater and is murky with runoff from the adjacent murram road. About a mile past this small pond, you’ll come across an Indian-owned sugarcane plantation called Kinyara Sugar Works Limited. The vast expanse of sugar canes is lavished with water during the dry season and through the acres and acres of sugarcane, you’ll see large trucks watering the young sugarcane plants.

Image 2: A sugarcane field juxtaposing the forest                       Source: Personal photo

It’s an unsettling dichotomy to see, but it shows you the discrepancies between water availability and access in rural Western Uganda. On one hand, you see rural Ugandans with unstable and unsafe sources of water and on the other hand, large agricultural firms with access to large amounts of water.  According to the United Nations, the benefits of having safe-drinking water can only be fulfilled when access to sanitation and hygiene is guaranteed in conjunction (U.N. Water). Furthermore, acquiring water should not come at the expense of womens’ and childrens’ livelihoods, meaning that the responsibility of fetching water should not fall on the less privileged. My blog will focus on the multifaceted relationship between water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). This link not only plays a large role in international and community based public health endeavors, but also in environmental stewardship and conservation efforts. In many parts of rural Uganda, water sources often flank forests that serve as important habitats for chimpanzees, black and white colobuses, and vervet monkeys. Human-wildlife conflicts arise near these streams and can result in exchange of diseases to and from humans. Evidently, human health and environmental health go hand in hand. In the coming posts, you’ll begin to see that WASH has the ability to address interconnected issues such as women’s health, community health, child mortality, environmental conservation, and ecosystems preservation.

Image 3: Assessing community health in BuhomaSource: Personal photo

Stay tuned -

References:
Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene. United Nations Water. http://www.unwater.org/water-facts/water-sanitation-and-hygiene/