Erstwhile Sepia guest blogger Saheli is amazing for many reasons, but now I have confirmation that it’s obviously genetic; her Uncle is Arunabha Ghosh, who recently accompanied rapper Jay-Z to Africa. Uncle Arunabha (do you like how I totally mooched him?) is involved with many worthy issues:
He worked on the rights of indigenous people, international migration, and the rise of culturally intolerant movements around the world. He recently delivered a lecture on the integration of immigrants at the Universal Forum of Cultures in Barcelona. [link]
What caught my attention and what Saheli just blogged about, however, is water:
Over a billion people lack access to clean drinking water. Every day–including today, Christmas Eve–over 4000 children lacking good drinking water will die of diarrhea-causing diseases.
It’s hard to wrap our heads around such astonishing statistics, or understand what causes this great gaping need, and how simple some of the solutions are. Last month MTV put up a set of videos in which Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter went on a tour of a home and a school in Africa to understand the basic issues. He was accompanied by his “homeboy,” my uncle, Arunabha Ghosh, a Policy Specialist and one of the authors of the UNDP Human Development Report. Arunabha has spent the last few years tirelessly running around the world, raising the alarm about development needs and spreading the word about development solutions. Last week he addressed an Indian Parliamentary forum on national water issues.[link]
Saheli does a fantastic job of breaking down the plight of children who spend hours fetching something which most of us shamefully take for granted, as we let the faucets run while brushing our teeth (wasting 3-7 gallons per minute). See for yourself, on her “More Fantasticness” blog, here. And if you want to know what I want for my birthday, see for yourself, here.
Check this terracota clay water filter
This was so perfect today thanx to Saheli. Merry Christmas ANNA & Happy early Birthday. I just made your birthday wish come true. Thanx for the link.
Another great product to check out is Lifestraw for water purification
I know that guy…hes one of my friends…
We’ll be going to war for water instead of oil pretty soon
I was about to say the same thing. Dean Kamen’s people have been working on portable, easily maintainable water purifiers for some time now:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/16/technology/business2_futureboy0216/index.htm
When we waste water, the only result is that we end up paying more for it. A causal effect. Consumption increases and cost increases (for filtering, treatment etc.). However, water, unlike oil, is not a limited, fast depleting resource. Turning our faucets off does not translate to ‘more water for needy children in Africa’. This is an insufficient infrastructure problem and can only be tackled by strengthening the same. How do we do that? Lay giant pipes from Boston to Liberia? No! Increase water farming in these countries. Setup up better water treatment facilities. Educate the general population about how to conserve water (only because they have so little to begin with).
I am not against the principle of conserving water (or other natural resources). But be aware that just fixing a toilet leak will not magically result in potable water spurting in villages all over the world.
thanks for the playpumps link – great idea. i made a donation
Vijit,
I don’t know where you live but where I do, we have to pay for our water. At the very least, in not wasting water, energy is saved in the process of bringing water to you, the water itself is conserved and you save money.
Water is precious my friend. Go to the Dominican Republica, or Mexico and watch how ingenius the people there are about conserving water. They could teach us nortes how to do it. My family in Colombia collect their drinking water, cooking water and bathing water off the gutters in big drums. It is then used and recycled for gardening and cleaning purposes. I could go on but it’s not really sepia related…
I have noticed the amount of water being wasted ever since I started dorming–people run the communal showers (and they’re not in it), running the public sinks, etc. Now I appreciate the rules in my house about not wasting water. Hopefully this campaign brings more awareness!
We’ll be going to war for water instead of oil pretty soon
There is a reason why Israelis will never leave the West Bank Settlements and it has to something with two h and an o.
Thanks A N N A and Saheli for this! Totally a timely and complicated issue, and it has been so nice to come back to the U.S. and see water emphasized as a major policy/development issue, both by international organizations and by pop stars.
Vijit, your points are well-taken, but I think the next step is of course to address issues of water delivery and purification, particularly in poor and rural areas where piped water schemes are nearly impossible to afford or to set up in a reliable way. And, without steady replenishing, water is a limited resource. While person A may be able to afford a sharp increase in the cost of water that comes from our lack of conservation, person B struggling to make ends meet may not. Personally, I think that some elements of life, clean/potable water included, should not be reserved only for those who can pay. And, in the spirit of conservation, a great example of ridiculous water usage would be the entire American West/Southwest, where we have irrigated whole crops and lawns in the desert.
To add to the list of “as good (and affordable” as it gets short of a full on treatment center” are PSI’s chlorine treatment products, and sunlight, the latter being particularly affordable.
Vijit,
How dare you state facts and use logic when the subject is about poor people in Africa? Don’t you know that when topics like these are discussed, one has to think with his/her heart? It is impolite and inconsiderate to bring up valid points that might make potential donors think twice about funding charlatans and quacks.
Yes – maybe a brouhaha is being raised over something that literally falls out of the sky – but so what? So what if vested interests in those countries purposefully drain groundwater to settle petty scores or to keep the people subjugated? It is America’s duty to… take care of the world’s water problems – free of cost. Petty facts like – 80% of water in America is used for irrigation, 16% for industry, and only 4% for net residential consumption – should not be brought to light. Your potty should be made to flush less water – and that’s that. Never mind that it reduces water consumption by less than 0.001%. Maybe the same 0.001% will evaporate and miraculously form rain clouds over Africa and fall into the mouths of thirsty children. Miracles are known to happen – it is Chrismas season after all!
M. Nam
LOOK.
The ONLY reason I included that factoid was because I wanted people to be more mindful of what we take for granted, when children elsewhere have to trek four hours a day to get water. I feel like ALL of us could do with more gratefulness in our lives. Saheli did NOT make the link between American water conservation and African needs.
I am not so stupid that I’d think that turning off the faucet would automatically send my saved water to some African village, but thanks for assuming the worst.
Move on. I am in no mood for pettiness.
When we waste water, the only result is that we end up paying more for it. A causal effect. Consumption increases and cost increases (for filtering, treatment etc.). However, water, unlike oil, is not a limited, fast depleting resource. Turning our faucets off does not translate to ‘more water for needy children in Africa’. This is an insufficient infrastructure problem and can only be tackled by strengthening the same. How do we do that? Lay giant pipes from Boston to Liberia? No! Increase water farming in these countries. Setup up better water treatment facilities. Educate the general population about how to conserve water (only because they have so little to begin with).
Fair enough. Its like telling children not to waste food. If we stop wasting food, the only people who would starve are the farmers. The poor in other countries will still have a shortage of food as the transportation costs are so prohibitive.
I just love that something as innocent as a merry-go-round could also have such a vital purpose. What a fantastic idea. 🙂
I think when i was ten, pbs had an informative kids’ cartoon where they showed a kid brushing his teeth and letting the water run and then the camera followed the water pipes all the way to the ocean and you could see the tiny goldfish dying because the wasteful water usage had sucked up all the water in the ocean. It was an exaggerated explanation but ever since then, I haven’t let the water run while brushing my teeth.
Jay-Z + Great Cause = Splendid!
Earlier this year we had a campaign that urged us not to let water run when brushing our teeth. My exact words to my girlfriend were “what kind of degenerate does that?” Not because I’m a water-saving fundamentalist, but I’ve never in my life met someone who leaves the tap on while they brush. Is this normal human behaviour? Seems f*cking idiotic.
I’m waiting for the day when they get the courage to say piss in the basin to save water because a) it’s common sense b) flushing is responsible for 80% of a house’s water use (or something like that) c) it will sanction my behaviour
Ricky Gervais on water shortages:
But, in the 80s, we get a phonecall…Thatcher answers: ‘Hellooo?’ ‘Hi, it’s Africa here’. ‘Yeah what do you want?’ ‘Um, well, we’re all starving and that’. ‘Oh… well you shoulda thought about that, before you wanted INDEPENDENCE.’ ‘Yeah well we didn’t know there’d be a drought’ Drought? I’ll give you drought. We had a drought here in the long, hot summer of 1976. We had a hosepipe ban in Reading. We’ve all got our problems. Cor, imagine my mum carrying buckets of water back and forth. For the garden. Having to sneak out after dark to water her roses. With her back.
I saw that show and noted that:
JayZ was rude to his african brothers and sisters, for no reason at all. He is clearly not doing this out of genuine love and compassion.
The poor people in this backward african country looked better fed, better clothed, better housed, just generally better off than the huge masses of impoverished indians.
The fact is that indians suffer greater hardships dealing with the necessities of water, food and sanitation than probably anyone else on the planet:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/world/asia/29water.html?ex=1317182400&en=0059effdd12b7233&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
“The quest for water can drive a woman mad. Ask Ritu Prasher. Every day, Mrs. Prasher, a homemaker in a middle-class neighborhood of this capital, rises at 6:30 a.m. and begins fretting about water. It is a rare morning when water trickles through the pipes. More often, not a drop will come.”
“In the richest city in India, with the nationÂ’s economy marching ahead at an enviable clip, middle-class people like Mrs. Prasher are reduced to foraging for water. Their predicament testifies to the governmentÂ’s astonishing inability to deliver the most basic services to its citizens at a time when India asserts itself as a global power.
The crisis, decades in the making, has grown as fast as India in recent years. A soaring population, the warp-speed sprawl of cities, and a vast and thirsty farm belt have all put new strains on a feeble, ill-kept public water and sanitation network.
The combination has left water all too scarce in some places, contaminated in others and in cursed surfeit for millions who are flooded each year. Today the problems threaten IndiaÂ’s ability to fortify its sagging farms, sustain its economic growth and make its cities healthy and habitable. At stake is not only IndiaÂ’s economic ambition but its very image as the worldÂ’s largest democracy.”
“New DelhiÂ’s water woes are typical of those of many Indian cities. Nationwide, the urban water distribution network is in such disrepair that no city can provide water from the public tap for more than a few hours a day.
An even bigger problem than demand is disposal. New Delhi can neither quench its thirst, nor adequately get rid of the ever bigger heaps of sewage that it produces. Some 45 percent of the population is not connected to the public sewerage system.
Those issues are amplified nationwide. More than 700 million Indians, or roughly two-thirds of the population, do not have adequate sanitation. Largely for lack of clean water, 2.1 million children under the age of 5 die each year, according to the United Nations.”
“The World Bank, in rare agreement with Ms. Narain, warned in a report published last October that India stood on the edge of “an era of severe water scarcity.”
“Unless dramatic changes are made — and made soon — in the way in which government manages water,” the World Bank report concluded, “India will have neither the cash to maintain and build new infrastructure, nor the water required for the economy and for people.”
The window to address the crisis is closing. Climate change is expected only to exacerbate the problems by causing extreme bouts of weather — heat, deluge or drought.”
“In New Delhi the Yamuna itself is clinically dead.
As the Yamuna enters the capital, still relatively clean from its 246-mile descent from atop the Himalayas, the cityÂ’s public water agency, the New Delhi Jal Board, extracts 229 million gallons every day from the river, its largest single source of drinking water.
As the Yamuna leaves the city, it becomes the principal drain for New DelhiÂ’s waste. Residents pour 950 million gallons of sewage into the river each day.
Coursing through the capital, the river becomes a noxious black thread. Clumps of raw sewage float on top. Methane gas gurgles on the surface.
It is hardly safe for fish, let alone bathing or drinking. A government audit found last year that the level of fecal coliform, one measure of filth, in the Yamuna was 100,000 times the safe limit for bathing.”
“Warning of “an unparalleled water crisis,” the study released in August found that 25 percent of New Delhi households had no access to piped water, and that 27 percent got water for less than three hours a day. Nearly two million households, the report also found, had no toilet”
“The situation for New Delhi, and all of India, is only expected to worsen. India now uses an estimated 829 billion cubic yards of water every year — that is more than guzzling an entire Lake Erie. But its water needs are growing by leaps.”
“So the cityÂ’s pipe network remains a punctured mess. That means, like most everything else in this country, some people have more than enough, and others too little.
The slums built higgledy-piggledy behind Mrs. PrasherÂ’s neighborhood have no public pipes at all. The Jal Board sends tankers instead. The women here waste their days waiting for water, and its arrival sets off desperate wrestling in the streets.
Kamal Krishnan quit her job for the sake of securing her share. Five days a week, she would clean offices in the next neighborhood. Five nights a week, she would go home to find no water at home. The buckets would stand empty. Finally, her husband ordered her to quit. And wait.
“I want to work, but I can’t,” she said glumly. “I go mad waiting for water.”
Elsewhere, in the central city, where the nationÂ’s top politicians have their official homes, the average daily water supply is three times what finally arrives even in Mrs. PrasherÂ’s neighborhood.
Mrs. Prasher rations her water day to day as if New Delhi were a desert. She uses the leftover water from the dog bowl to water the plants. She recycles soapy water from the laundry to mop the balcony.
And even when she gets it, the quality is another question altogether.
Her well water has turned salty as it has receded over the years. The water from the private tanker is mucky-brown. Still, Mrs. Prasher says, she can hardly afford to reject it. “Beggars canÂ’t be choosers,” she said. “ItÂ’s water.” “
Speaking of conservation…here’s my unscientific observation (noticed ‘well’ over a decade in South India):
As someone who spent most of my school/college days in dormitories(aka hostels/boarding schools), my observation has been that people from the ‘water belt’ were more responsible in water consumption when they had unlimited water supply.
All those places I stayed, had unlimited food and water luckily. Similarly, people from upper middle class were more responsible in not wasting the food being served when the food was in the buffet.
P.S: There were exceptions.
What are India’s engineers doing? One would think that the indian government would harness its native brainpower to solve the immense problems facing its citizens, instead of relying on the kindness of foreigners.
We are talking failed state here folks:
“More than 700 million Indians, or roughly two-thirds of the population, do not have adequate sanitation. Largely for lack of clean water, 2.1 million children under the age of 5 die each year, according to the United Nations.”
“Their predicament testifies to the governmentÂ’s astonishing inability to deliver the most basic services to its citizens at a time when India asserts itself as a global power.”
I heart Ricky. Season two of Extras starts in the States on 1/15. Or you can find it all on You Tube, I suppose.
Back to the issue at hand.
Be careful. You will start a virtual war over here.
I hate to say this, but the reason that water is short in India and Africa comes down to simple economics. When the price of good is artificially held below the market clearing value, you invariably end up with shortages. In this case, water is free. Actually, you still pay for water, but not with money. You pay for water with time and inconvenience and, sometimes, with blind, awful thirst. Now, if we allowed water providers to charge for water or (oh no!) allowed private companies to be in the business of water, what would happen to all those poor people who could not pay? In my opinion, we would be better off letting private players provide water for a fee and then provide a simple cash grant to the poor to pay for that water. This seems like it will provide the best possible incentives all around.
(And Anna – I understand that you were making a different point involving gratitude and privilege and charity and the virtue of moderation. I am not responding to those thoughts – I agree with what you expressed. I am responding more to the general nature of the problem.)
Actually, you still pay for water, but not with money. You pay for water with time and inconvenience and, sometimes, with blind, awful thirst.
There are few issues at play that nobody in the comments has alluded to:
1) Fresh water supply, and its proximity 2) Ground water table, and how deep it is 3) Rivers
and most important
4) Pollution
In India, often (excluding Thar desert, and adjoining arid areas), the ground water table is fairly shallow. However, overpopulation has totally mucked up the ground water. Parts of India has semi-arid like conditions due to man made conditions.
But in parts of Nepal, and Bangladesh, the groundwater has anthrpogenic arsenic in it.
We fixed one leaky toilet in our house (the flush emptied and refilled several times a day from the leak) and cut our water bill in HALF! It’s not just about being grateful for having something that other people don’t have, but about they fact that we might lose it too. The town I live in, where it rains ALL the time, had a water shortage a few years ago, from one dry summer. Restaurants stopped serving water, some served food on disposable plates, and people were not allowed to water their gardens. Don’t assume that just because you live in the US your water is a ever-replenished resource.
After growing up in Hyderabad, being able to turn on the tap and get running water every day still amazes me. We had 2 hours in the AM and 2 in the PM of running water. You had to poop during those two hours, or you couldn’t flush the toilet. The groundwater that came through the pipes wasn’t potable, so our maid had to carry water from the one municipal tap to our flat in a pot every day; she had to do this for the 5 or 6 households she worked for, and every maid in the apartment complex had to line up for the few hours each morning that this water supply was available. (Lord knows where she got her own drinking water). Then we poured the water into empty Kissan juice bottles and refrigerated it.
When we lived at my aunt’s house in Madras for a year, the groundwater was full of iron. It stained the bathroom tiles red, and you weren’t supposed to drink it or cook with it; washing your clothes in it could be risky. So for drinking water, we went to my other aunt’s well, trekking through several neighbours yards with buckets. In Madras, you had to boil the water before it was safe to drink.
Since everyone had to put up with these problems, it didn’t seem like such an inconvenience, but now one of my single greatest pleasures in life is taking a hot shower without worrying about the water running out.
Mumbai’s residents go without water for a day
I dont think you really think rationally Mr Truthseeker,
“More than 700 million Indians, or roughly two-thirds of the population, do not have adequate sanitation. Largely for lack of clean water, 2.1 million children under the age of 5 die each year, according to the United Nations.” “Their predicament testifies to the governmentÂ’s astonishing inability to deliver the most basic services to its citizens at a time when India asserts itself as a global power.”
If you ask any rational human being the above situation is a ‘culmination of a few hundred WRONGS.” If a blanket statement like blaming a government for all the woes is the take-home message from your rant then you are absolutely delusional. If you are an NRI then I am sympathetic to your predicament. You simply dont know ground realities and are jumping into a problem without a knowledge of history. Post-independence , India was resonably densely populated. Some areas more-so than others. Unlike the West where money was abound and human capital was energetic and abundantly available, Indian policy makers had to contend with caste , creed , regionalism and the chance that the newly independent state would never remain a cohesive country. I doubt any of the people you see investing in India today would have dared to sink a penny in India in 1947. Most Indians themsleves were ready to jump ship and swim to the West rather than stay and sacrifice their lives so that the progeny would awake in a modern and finacially stable India. You need to look at the history of the West (especially of the Frontier states and their 1st 10 generations) to understand how good Indians have it today.
Yes there are problems , but we are NOT A FAILED STATE. If I learnt one thing in Mumbai..its Thoda adjust kar le boss. Door thak jana hai. Kam se kam thoda gaand tikane ka jaga to de!!! (Will you adjust a little dear friend!We need to go far. Atleast give me some space to park a bit of my ass on the seat)!Now if only the whole nation understood the mindset rather than try to siphon off from the system!!!
So you think its “rational” to conclude that a country with a long-term stable government that cannot even adequately provide the basic necessities of life: water, food, sanitation, healthcare etc, to the majority of its citizens (despite having the resources to do so) is a successful state?!
Millions of indian children die every year from malnutrition and lack of clean water and you think that this criminal, callous negligence is excusable?? That’s just unbelievable!
At least to your credit you recognize hindu casteism as a handicap for India, unlike a few posters here who even defend this patent abomination…