Water is a topic of conversation in Nairobi. Most often, it’s how much rain there’s been, or hasn’t been; whether it’s in the taps or not…. I’m thankfully very rarely without water in my apartment, but I’m very aware that that’s not the case for many here. Some maybe don’t have water at all; some only periodically. I have one colleague who has to get up in the middle of the night to fill every container available, as that’s when the water is in the taps. Other friends have huge water storage tanks, and have systems rigged up to collect rain water. We’re all therefore very aware of the rains, and just how much there’s been. Whilst no one likes the mud nor the ensuing traffic chaos, we’re all thankful that the long rains seem to have finally come.
I was a little perturbed two evenings ago to see that whilst I had water, its colour was far from what it should be! Not really what you want to be washing your face in! Having had a situation not so many months ago when sewage was getting into the mains water, it does make you wonder about the quality. The usual exercise of soaking fruit and vegetables for 20 minutes in a bleach solution (to remove typhoid and other such nasties) may be an exercise in futility at the moment, and simply a way to increase the likelihood of contracting something unpleasant….
The picture of the two glasses of water shows the before and after going through my Pentapure water filter, a system that is meant to take out bugs and bacteria, as well as dirt. Let’s hope it really is as effective as they claim! This weekend I’ll be faced with the quandary of whether to do laundry, as it looks as though clothes will possibly come out dirtier than they went in!
