Hakuna Magi (No Water)

“Nearly half a million people without water”

If this were the case in the US, people would be working around the clock to get the water back for those people, at most in a couple of days. In the slums of Mathare, nobody seems to notice the half a million people without water. For the past 4 weeks the slum has had no water. None. And did anyone take a notice? Nope. The Chinese are rebuilding a road a mile from the slum and they must have broken a pipe along the way, but didn’t care to fix it quickly (should I mention they are paying their Kenyan laborers less than 50cents a work day for had manual labor?) So the people of Mathare were forced to travel up to 2 miles outside of the slum to purchase water for their daily living. They would carry large 10 litre gerry cans to fill with the water. The people selling the water were making a fortune, selling it at over 4 times the normal price- which was a nickel for 10 litre. This price increase makes a huge difference for the family of 6 living on $1 a day and spending 30% of that on water to supply their basic needs of cleaning and washing. Our school alone has had to spend over $100 purchasing water just to cook with. I’ll let you imagine what the bathrooms smell like with no water for 4 weeks.

So my question is, how can people get away with this? The answer: Corruption. From beginning to end: the people working on the road, the government, the water providers, everyone is feeding into corruption in order to make more money. The people of Mathare don’t have much hope for the future either. They told me that for the past 6 months when they started working on the road their water supply has not been consistent. And the project is estimated to take 2 years, so the residents are expecting their water supply to come and go for the next 2 years. What a way to live. It makes my bucket shower seem like heaven!