It seems impossible to imagine life without clean water, let alone going days, or even weeks without any water (clean or dirty) at all. Many families and people residing in the Mngazana Village in Port St. Johns go months without clean drinking water, and in addition, sometimes weeks without any water at all. The village received new pipes a little over a year ago and quickly began to see problems. When received, you could visibly see loads of a salt look in the water, along with other minerals. When the issue was acknowledged and brought to the attention of the councillor, it was brushed off and blamed on the residents as a result of vandalism and criminal activity. It became apparent that this wasn’t of high concern when residents would go to fill up there water buckets and nothing would come out, sometimes as long as a few weeks resulting in nothing to clean or cook with, and even worse, nothing to drink.
This is important for a number of reasons. For starters, lets focus on the fact that when water is accessible, it isn’t clean drinking water. The water could potentially contain a have amount of salt and minerals, but even chemicals- which could have a lasting effect on the body. This could lead to early death and more disease in adults- which could leave children growing up without parents, or anyone to take care of them. Not only could this have the same effect in children- but it could alter brain development; causing damage, areas not to grow, etc. If a child is only exposed to dirty and contaminated water when they are in the most crucial stages of human development- it is basically equivalent setting them up for failure.
Secondly, we must acknowledge the bigger issue- they have access to dirty drinking water, but what about when there is no water at all? Not only do residents here already have to trek a few miles to fill up their buckets with water- sometimes the water is all gone. causing families, children, to go weeks without anything to drink, and even worse, a lack of materials to cook. This could lead to a greater number in famine cases, again leading communities to disappear completely.
With areas still living without water, or without clean water, it could lead to a higher number of displaced people. If the government from higher power countries don’t step in- what will happen? These small rural communities are so neglected by their own governments that if they were to even speak up, like they have, it is shut down, not taken seriously, or ignored completly.