It's been months I've been elaborating on a post to publish on Water. I am deadly attracted and always remain fascinated by this resource. Seeing crytal water flowing, hearing its constant melody blowing, feeling the unfolding fresh air caressing my face are for me a renewable unique source of joy and happiness.
My perception on its availability is often mixed as I would think of it as abundant and scarse at the same time. My childwood has been shaped and marked by water as a scarse commodity. I grew up in a big city, Douala, but I remember back then it was clean, tidy and a little bourgeois. The city was in its early urbanization after the country's independence. It was not yet a victim of youth exodus from the countryside. My father fled as a teen from the countryside after my grandfather died, to his aunt in then the colonial main port of Cameroon.
The city did not have a particular water problem, but the growing population was struggling to share the water point each city district was provided with. Most working class families like my father's could not afford the cost of distribution the local utility charged to bring drinkable water home.
Sourcing water was subsequently a vital daily activity in each family. Children were the owners of this vital duty that they handled with resolution and somehow enthusiasm as I do not recall hearing a single complaint from any of my brothers and sisters in sourcing this mineral. I started carrying this duty in my early age, by 3, addying more weight on my head in carrying water as I grew up. We would hunt for water in the late afternoon after school, in multiple exits until the huge cans were filled with this resource. The week end was not an holiday from this activity, but we still had plenty of time to play, to enjoy our freedom and do our school homework.
The distance of the district water point was less than a km, so it was not that a big struggle, but in the mid-80s the city population grew disproportionately vs the water points and with the same water towers to serve the city. So the water started to become salty as I would now immagine that the local utility needed to add sea water to the city water supply.
Those were tough years to source water for all families, included the well-off. The distance became much longer and good water points were very limited and dependent on the goodwill of very few philantropists. The closest point I freshly remember my family took advantage of was within the premises of the city factory of Guinness beer producer which had its own well for its beer production. We would walk a 8-10km return journey carrying huge cans on our head to source the precious resource. Since then, Guinness sticked in my memory as the only multinational in Cameroon who truly then really cared about the wellbeing of the local community where they operated. In my knowledge, Guinness Cameroon maintained and added further to its social responsibility commitments over the years, in dire contradiction with its local and international peers.
My father eventually afforded water home from the local utility, after the family compound was also provided with electricity.
My perception of water being an abundant resource was built in Europe. When I first moved here, I was impressed by its abundance in its home and the tendance to spare it. I was also impressed by the fact that nearly everybody spends money to drink embottled water and eventually jumped into the bandwagon myself. Northern Italy is blessed a country with fresh and cool water flowing from its many sourrounding mountains. The south is cursed by drought to a limited extent but mostly by its own wit sons or goodfellas. There's consensus but dead silence about the benefits that a scarse distribution of clean water brings to the mobs, in the same way as Naples has been struggling to manage its city garbage.
I am lucky and blessed to regularly visit a small town right on the bank of Italy's grand lake Garda, Riva del Garda, a town welcoming visitors in the autonomous Trentino region. Our residence stretches by a river flowing by the near hills at a constant density feeding my perception that this resource is unlimited in this region. This water is so pure and visibly oligomineral that I often wonder why no one has ever thought of bottling it.
I sometimes sadly think of the billion citizens still struggling to have access to this precious mineral whilst a minority is not conscious of its preciousness and hence do not protect it. I have already traced this river from its source from a hole in a nearby hill to its entry point in the grand lake. My favoured relaxation along my 2 children is spending some silent time at this bay watching the river flowing into the pure water lake, with one idea circulating in my mind, i.e to jump into that water to feel its freshness on my body and soul. My elder boy often ask me why I spend too much time at that point and I reply to him by recalling my childhood with low quality precious water and trying to pass a message that water is indeed a scarse and cherished mineral.
I had a chance a couple of years ago to attend a vernissage of a photo exhibition of an NGO which has made water supply to stranded population in Mali its fight, by raising funds in Italy to finance the search of water by locals, through well digging and construction.
I was moved by this event, by the photos, by the interest and love that most visitors exhaled. For the first time here in Italy, I had a chance to feel some consciousness in people that water was a scarce and precious thing. I was lucky to be introduced to the point person of Alì 2000 (http://www.ali2000.it/portale) who was nice to share a short explaination of the charity phylosophy, i.e. no agency cost, no middleman, all the money collected is fully wired to Mali to finance a specific project, with job creation benefiting the locals. I fell in love with this small and lean organization to pledge my commitment to help to some little extent to bring my own contribution to fund raising.
Two months on, I now have the chance to submit a project for Alì 2000 to my fellow members of a charity raising funds for other charities. I am excited, but also anxious about the exit of this trial. I hope everything will be fine.
Please after reading this post, I praise you to foster this message, i.e. water is indeed a scarse commodity, it's even dearer than oil and needs to be used with care, with the future generation in mind and a little thought for the many billions who struggle everyday to source it.
Please, kindly post your comments and feelings.
Eric
My perception on its availability is often mixed as I would think of it as abundant and scarse at the same time. My childwood has been shaped and marked by water as a scarse commodity. I grew up in a big city, Douala, but I remember back then it was clean, tidy and a little bourgeois. The city was in its early urbanization after the country's independence. It was not yet a victim of youth exodus from the countryside. My father fled as a teen from the countryside after my grandfather died, to his aunt in then the colonial main port of Cameroon.
The city did not have a particular water problem, but the growing population was struggling to share the water point each city district was provided with. Most working class families like my father's could not afford the cost of distribution the local utility charged to bring drinkable water home.
Sourcing water was subsequently a vital daily activity in each family. Children were the owners of this vital duty that they handled with resolution and somehow enthusiasm as I do not recall hearing a single complaint from any of my brothers and sisters in sourcing this mineral. I started carrying this duty in my early age, by 3, addying more weight on my head in carrying water as I grew up. We would hunt for water in the late afternoon after school, in multiple exits until the huge cans were filled with this resource. The week end was not an holiday from this activity, but we still had plenty of time to play, to enjoy our freedom and do our school homework.
The distance of the district water point was less than a km, so it was not that a big struggle, but in the mid-80s the city population grew disproportionately vs the water points and with the same water towers to serve the city. So the water started to become salty as I would now immagine that the local utility needed to add sea water to the city water supply.
Those were tough years to source water for all families, included the well-off. The distance became much longer and good water points were very limited and dependent on the goodwill of very few philantropists. The closest point I freshly remember my family took advantage of was within the premises of the city factory of Guinness beer producer which had its own well for its beer production. We would walk a 8-10km return journey carrying huge cans on our head to source the precious resource. Since then, Guinness sticked in my memory as the only multinational in Cameroon who truly then really cared about the wellbeing of the local community where they operated. In my knowledge, Guinness Cameroon maintained and added further to its social responsibility commitments over the years, in dire contradiction with its local and international peers.
My father eventually afforded water home from the local utility, after the family compound was also provided with electricity.
My perception of water being an abundant resource was built in Europe. When I first moved here, I was impressed by its abundance in its home and the tendance to spare it. I was also impressed by the fact that nearly everybody spends money to drink embottled water and eventually jumped into the bandwagon myself. Northern Italy is blessed a country with fresh and cool water flowing from its many sourrounding mountains. The south is cursed by drought to a limited extent but mostly by its own wit sons or goodfellas. There's consensus but dead silence about the benefits that a scarse distribution of clean water brings to the mobs, in the same way as Naples has been struggling to manage its city garbage.
I am lucky and blessed to regularly visit a small town right on the bank of Italy's grand lake Garda, Riva del Garda, a town welcoming visitors in the autonomous Trentino region. Our residence stretches by a river flowing by the near hills at a constant density feeding my perception that this resource is unlimited in this region. This water is so pure and visibly oligomineral that I often wonder why no one has ever thought of bottling it.
I sometimes sadly think of the billion citizens still struggling to have access to this precious mineral whilst a minority is not conscious of its preciousness and hence do not protect it. I have already traced this river from its source from a hole in a nearby hill to its entry point in the grand lake. My favoured relaxation along my 2 children is spending some silent time at this bay watching the river flowing into the pure water lake, with one idea circulating in my mind, i.e to jump into that water to feel its freshness on my body and soul. My elder boy often ask me why I spend too much time at that point and I reply to him by recalling my childhood with low quality precious water and trying to pass a message that water is indeed a scarse and cherished mineral.
I had a chance a couple of years ago to attend a vernissage of a photo exhibition of an NGO which has made water supply to stranded population in Mali its fight, by raising funds in Italy to finance the search of water by locals, through well digging and construction.
I was moved by this event, by the photos, by the interest and love that most visitors exhaled. For the first time here in Italy, I had a chance to feel some consciousness in people that water was a scarce and precious thing. I was lucky to be introduced to the point person of Alì 2000 (http://www.ali2000.it/portale) who was nice to share a short explaination of the charity phylosophy, i.e. no agency cost, no middleman, all the money collected is fully wired to Mali to finance a specific project, with job creation benefiting the locals. I fell in love with this small and lean organization to pledge my commitment to help to some little extent to bring my own contribution to fund raising.
Two months on, I now have the chance to submit a project for Alì 2000 to my fellow members of a charity raising funds for other charities. I am excited, but also anxious about the exit of this trial. I hope everything will be fine.
Please after reading this post, I praise you to foster this message, i.e. water is indeed a scarse commodity, it's even dearer than oil and needs to be used with care, with the future generation in mind and a little thought for the many billions who struggle everyday to source it.
Please, kindly post your comments and feelings.
Eric
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