Lesotho - Rain at Last

Water, Precious Water

Collecting, storing, rationing, using, … all became an obsession for me during the drought. It was so depressing, first to see the long lines of villagers scavenging for meager drops of water at broken water lines, creeks, or dripping taps, and the wasting of the livestock; and then second for me to have to manage this precious resource for myself.  There have been reports of quite of few villagers getting sick from poor quality water, even a death in my neighborhood.


Peace Corps delivering much needed barrel of water
Some PCVs in the neighborhood have not had water from their taps since September. A few other PCVs were actually moved to a new home in a different location entirely when their water source completely became unavailable.  I consider myself fortunate as I had some water, usually for an hour 1-2 times a week through November. But, in December & most of January, I had no water from my tap at all. That creates a particularly bad situation because I have a flush toilet and no (water-free) outhouse. I just knew that whenever I could find water I should fill up every container possible

So, life without water, what's that like? Or… Just how many buckets can I fill?
I admit to myself that I am a Cost-Co consumer. I rely on the certainty of a never ending supply of toilet paper and countless "soft sheets" for the dryer, as well as the comfort that an extra-large bottle of olive oil provides.

Just how many buckets & containers do I have…
3 extra large
2 medium
4 medium small*
1 small
1 tub for the mop*
2 wash basins*
3 kitchen pots
3 water jugs, 5-liter
1 large canister supplied by PC for filtering boiled water for drinking
1 very large barrel supplied by PC
1 extra barrel supplied by PC that was intended for another PCV but not needed
*without lids

And did I ever run out? Absolutely!
In spite of trying my best to conserve & reuse every drop of water, after a couple weeks without any water from the tap, I ran out. Flushing the toilet once a day is the biggest water hog - My new source of water became the tap from the borehole at St. Camillus Centre. While Sr. Juliana had her truck she could have the kids collect the water & load the buckets on her truck to bring back to me. Once the truck was out for repairs I had to hire a driver (about $8 USD) to make the round trip to haul water for me from the Centre.

Life with limited water:
  • Drinking: take water only from a good source like a tap, boil & filter always
  • Cooking: don't bother, get food that does not need to be cooked & use the minimum of pans & utensils
  • Laundry: don't bother; wear t-shirts 2-3x & pants even longer (use up my full supply of undies until water comes)
  • Showering: go to the hotel in town or to the Centre where they have the borehole
  • Toilets: eeeewwww, no more than once a day, light incense when needed, burn all possible tissue
  • Vegetable garden: use gray water from dishes as long as the taps supply at least some water, then stop watering
Queuing up for limited water - Mohale's Hoek 
    Queuing up for water from broken drain pipe - Mafeteng

And then the rain came!
The first heavy rain near the end of the month was like a miracle. Not even forecast, a huge rain came! Water poured across the field next to my house, flooded my yard, & poured into the next field downhill. I gathered up every empty bucket & container and put them outside to catch the rain. Every time one filled I dumped the water in a huge empty PC barrel and was to fill every available container & the toilets. I rushed to do laundry, shower, & wash my hair using the rain water so I could refill the buckets!  The safe tap water, reserved for boiling & filtering, remained in just a couple containers as I would not drink rain water, especially that which I captured from under the eaves.

Off & on for a week of so the rain came intermittently. My tap water came back on as the source reservoir began to fill. The rivers began to flow & I could see waterfalls from the mountains nearby. My few squash plants flourished & grew huge & the fields turned green.  If only it would last.

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