LOTS OF RAIN BUT NO WATER!

Apparently the rains are normally over by October but after quite a dry period in September in has been chucking it down on and off for the last week.

Although I have to say I prefer the balmy sunny days and am not such a fan of trudging home ankle deep in mud I should be happy about the last blast of rain. There had been worries that most of Ethiopia had not received enough rain this summer and some even said the conditions were similar to those that preceded the 1985 famine. So... it seems the farmers at least are rejoicing!

You would think with all this rain (it rained solidly for 4 days at least) that there would be plenty of water. Before the rains I had not even considered a water shortage as water came quite happily from my tap each day. I was even surprised when I heard that other volunteers had experienced days on end without a water supply to their homes. However... no sooner had the rains come but the water supply stopped! It happened first on Sunday all I had to collect extra water was one large saucepan which I put out in the rain overnight. Thankfully by Monday pm the water came back on and I filled every container I could find in the house just in case it happened again. I must have stored about 10 litres of water which seemed a lot to me at the time. However... when the water disappeared again last night I found those 10 litres disappeared very quickly! I had never really appreciated how much water I use on a daily basis until now. After cooking dinner; drinking two cups of tea; cooking breakfast; drinking another cup of tea; flushing the toilet, washing my hands and brushing my teeth twice each; and washing up the dishes from my dinner and breakfast I was saddened to find I did not really have enough to attempt a bucket shower and so went to work less than perfectly clean. I REALLY hope there is water when I go home tonight!

I must get better at storing emergency water. I may also have to start collecting water from University. I have heard it is possible I may have to go several weeks at a time without water... I am really hoping this is just a silly rumour and doesn’t happen in lovely places like Ambo but rather in far off distant lands!

It seems impossible that there could be any water shortage with all the rains we have been having. My landlord did offer a very plausible explanation though- he thought with the floods there could have been issues with pipes becoming clogged with excess silt deposits. That hopefully implies the current water issues should be only temporary while they remove the excess silt. However... once the last of the summer rains have been and gone it is likely that we will have months and months with no rain (sounds like bliss to me)... and then water issues may become more of an issue.

I shouldn’t be too concerned though... of all the countries in Africa, Ethiopia is the wettest. Most of its electricity comes from HEP and there are many natural lakes and river that flow through the country. For most of Ethiopia it seems it is not a problems of not enough water but of access to water. As I see gallons of gushing through Ambo along the river and yet none coming out of my taps I suppose I am experiencing this at a local level.