H2No

In college I took a course on Latin America. During one class period, I studied the Water War in Bolivia. In 1999-2000, Bolivian citizens protested the privatized water systems. The leading water resource Aguas del Tunari soon monopolized the water industry. The price of installing this system was incredibly high; many locals could afford the price of water, but not the price of installation. As a result, many Bolivians began to collect rainwater in attempt to eschew the private water companies. The government soon discovered these tricks and made collecting rainwater illegal. Water became scarce and sacred.

“That must have really sucked,” I thought as I walked out of class.  Later, I filled my water bottle, went home, took a shower, boiled some pasta, ate dinner, and put my dirty dishes into the dishwasher. The thought of water never crossed my mind again even though I was using water all day. I never stopped to appreciate the precious liquid gold until today.

Right now, my village is going through a drought. It’s nothing as severe as the Water War in Bolivia, but it is a serious issue. Let me explain my water situation:

There are two types of water in my household. There’s potable water that comes from a water cooler and there’s tap water. The drinking water is more expensive than the tap water. In fact, the tap water is paid for through taxes. The tap water is the stuff they warn you about in travel guides. You don’t want to drink that…ever. I still have potable water that gets delivered to my house every week. That’s not the issue. The issue is the tap water.

My bathroom has a large square basin on the left hand side. The basin is usually filled with water. Most of the time, the basin is overflowing and spills onto the bathroom floor. This water is used to mandi (bucket bath) and to flush the toilet. The toilet is a porcelain squatty potty. You pour water in the squatter (hey, that rhymes) until your excrement has been flushed down into the abyss.

Recently the water in the basin has been either 25-50% full (or 50-75% empty for all you pessimists out there). Indonesians usually take 2 bucket baths a day. Last week, my ibu asked me to skip my second bucket bath because there was hardly any water in the basin.

“We have to save it for the toilet,” she told me.

Just yesterday, I went into the bathroom in the morning to take a bucket bath. Unfortunately, the basin was nearly empty. I chose to only wash my bottom half in order to save the water for other purposes. Later that night the basin was full again, so I was able to fully bathe.

My ibu also tells me to be incredibly careful when I’m hand washing my clothes (I don’t have a washing machine in my house). To relieve some of her stress, I started washing my clothes only once a week as opposed to twice a week like I used to. I also wear the same clothes twice in order to avoid washing more clothes. It’s sort of gross in this climate, but I don’t want to be the cause of more stress.

In front of my house, there is a large dust lot. The lot can fit about 2 cars. My ibu “waters” this dust lot. When I asked her why, she said, “The dust flies up into your face. When it rains, I will stop doing this.”

I thought this was pretty counterintuitive seeing as we are in the middle of a drought. But here’s the logic behind it: if the dust constantly flies into my face, then I cough and need to drink water. Potable water is expensive, and therefore I am spending more money on water. By pouring tap water onto the dust lot, I am reducing the amount that I have to spend on potable water.

As I said before, the water in the bathroom basin sometimes overflows. To prevent the loss of water, my ibu has been saving the excess water in buckets. This water is used to water the dust lot.

I asked my host parents what we will do if the rain does not come until December. They said we will have to cut our bucket baths to only once a day and we will stop watering the dust lot.

Although the drought isn’t severe yet, I have developed a new appreciation for my water supply. I knew the lack of water is a concern around the globe, but I didn’t understand  how the lack of one resource could alter your lifestyle.