Sanitation

Every time I wash my hands, the water that rinses off them is black. This seems to be true even if I just washed them a 1/2 hour before. And I know that locals don't wash their hands nearly as often because water has to be hauled for everything as few people have running water at their homes. For instance, the compound behind us has one common cistern which seems to be filled by the city water system, but it only runs one day a week. So, they sometimes run out just before the week is up. We have two poly tanks (as described in a previous post), but two weeks ago, the city water didn't come on as scheduled, so we ran out for a couple days and, like the neighbors, had to get water from the bore hole (well) down the street. OK, we didn't carry it ourselves, but found someone to bring it for us. Nevertheless, we had bucket showers and flushed the toilet using a bucket (if you pour water in the bowl, the same pressure imbalance is created as when you press the lever and flood the bowl from the tank).

And, where does the water go after it's used? Into the open sewer, along with everyone's pee - men pee directly into the sewer as if it were a urinal, and women straddle the sewer, reach under their skirts and pull aside their underwear and pee directly into the sewer as well. Skirts seem much more practical in this light. Each compound has a couple "poo houses" where everyone, well, poos. They are more like outhouses, with doors for privacy - and one I used in a village (to pee, actually, because I'm shy) had a basket of corn cobs in the corner. OK, I'd heard of that, but seeing it was different.

Anyway, the open sewer is the recipient of pee, laundry water (laundry is done right alongside the sewer), bath water (children are soaped up and rinsed off alongside the sewer), dish water (washed alongside the sewer - you get the idea), tooth brushing water and spit, hanky-less nose blowings, and one kid's every-morning poop (he refuses to use the toilet). Oh, and the concrete courtyard of the compounds all slant toward the sewer so that rainwater will also flow into them. However, anything else round, bouncy, or slippery also rolls or slides into them. Back to the water issue - most of these things are retrieved and use of them continues, without washing.

Our kitchen and bathroom sinks also drain directly into the open sewer. Fortunately, our toilet and shower seem to go somewhere else, which is good, but since I don't know exactly where it goes, I'll hold off on giving too much praise.

The courtyard really begins to reek of urine after a couple hot days with no rain. It makes the rain that much more welcome. I think the neighbors also like it when we wash our hands and dishes a lot because the soapy water flows into the sewer and helps wash the pee "downstream".

In the villages, the issues are more profound because the areas for pee and poo are often not very well contained - so when there are torrential rains, as we had two days ago, everything washes out and runs through the village following the path of least resistance toward the nearest stream, river, swamp, pond, or gully. A number of NGO's (Non-Governmental Organizations, usually charities funded by people in developed nations) work almost entirely on village sanitation issues.

Unfortunately, all the NGO activity seems to lead to an entitlement mentality. Whenever an oburoni shows up, people expect to be given something and are unabashed about asking for/demanding it. One NGO guy told us that after he organized a community activity to dig a hole for a concrete bore hole frame the local men who helped dig wanted to be paid for their efforts. He was like, dude - we're paying to have a bore hole drilled so that you and your family and everyone in your village has safe drinking water and you want to be paid for helping!? (Ever hear of a barn raising?)

Anyway, maybe more on NGOs and entitlement vs. empowerment in another post.

XO