U-Gan-Da Drink That?

We have a lot of discussions about water in our house. Part of our yard is dominated by a 7000 gallon water tank in the yard that feeds a 2000 gallon tank situated on top of 25ft tower on the side of the house. Of course, this leads to many questions from the Gruesome Twosome, not limited to "when can I climb the tower?" T asks a lot of questions about the plumbing system in our house during bath time. "Mommy, can you tell me about how the city water connects to the pipes again?" S asks about the hot water heater: "Mommy, why hot water?" We are also answering a lot of questions about the water cycle in general when it rains. During the rainy season, the questions are incessant. And the girls' questions got us thinking about the water supply system in Uganda, although maybe these problems exist all over Sub-Saharan Africa in varying degrees.

The recently published 2014 Ugandan census showed that access to water is a problem for many Ugandans. It found that less than 20% of the country receives piped water. However, this might be inaccurate because the Ugandan national water authority recently revealed a number of commercial and residential landlords, including some very wealthy ones, are illegally hooking up to the water system. Not surprisingly, these villains have included Members of Parliament.

If only about 20% of Ugandans are receiving water through piped infrastructure, that means that more than 80% of Ugandans either buy their water from a truck or travel to a local tap or downspout and carry the water home themselves. Almost 33% of rural Ugandans have to travel more than 1km for their water. If you are a rural Ugandan but live near slightly larger town, you might be able to lug your jerry can to the side of the road and fill it up when the water truck drives by. If you are somewhat less fortunate, you might be able to pay someone to carry your jerry cans on the top of their matatu or the back of their boda to and from the tap or borehole. Many of these "water carriers" are children who earn but a few shillings with each carry. 

Your water can travel by matatu...

...by boda boda (pay no attention to the raindrops on the windshield - the first rain in many weeks)...

...picked up at the local watering hole...

...or travel by child along a busy highway, with vehicles - both large and small - traveling 120 Km/h. 

Keep in mind the vehicles are often poorly maintained and operated by bad drivers - even worse than Laura.

Compounding the access problem is the relatively unpredictable weather patterns caused by climate change. And the latest iteration of el Niño:

Despite the current unpredictability of rainfall, one can look to the local fauna for answers to when is it going to rain. These weaver birds were apparently a good indicator, frantically trying to complete their nests before the rains. We spotted them at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary on March 28th and the rains started about four days later:

According to our guide at nearby Murchison Falls National Park, the male birds build several nests as the rainy season approaches, hoping to attract a female to occupy one of the nests. This is a novel approach - one I might recommend to my five nephews when it is time for them to get married. "Just put up a bunch of tents and when a female moves in, marry her!"

Uganda's water issues don't stop at reliable access or lack thereof.  The scarcity or excess of water can create its own problems. Thanks to el Niño our avocado tree failed to produce any fruits last season, although our guava trees, the skinny trees in the photos, provided multiple bumper crops.  El Niño-related storms caused mud slides on Mt. Elgon, caused farmers to delay planting crops, washed out bridges and roads, and devastated a village along Lake Albert. And even though October is already supposed to be the 2nd rainiest month of the year, Kampala received twice its normal amount of rain in October 2015. 

Here's a couple of photos of our backyard's unplanned lake late last November, normally a period of light rain:

The girls' stepping posts are our depth gauges: The watermark on the first post on the left was 7 inches.
The water mark on one of the posts to the right was 11 inches. Holy Lack-of-Proper-Drainage, Batman!

Some regions, such as the Kampala region and Lake Victoria, have had too much rainfall and it is likely only to get worse. A recent report by North Carolina State University shows that the lake's level will rise significantly over the next decade. A golf course being built on the shores of Lake Victoria near Kampala has had a number of new fairways regularly submerged by the rising levels. It makes me cry.

Meanwhile, Northeastern Uganda, neighbouring, and nearby African countries Ethiopia, Somalia and Zimbabwe are all facing extreme drought, leading to food insecurity, potential conflicts, and refugee crises in those countries. In Somalia, the Shabelle River ran dry for the first time in recorded history, apparently due in part to Ethiopia hoarding the water for themselves. Adding insult to injury for the Zimbabweans, Robert Mugabe threw himself a big birthday bash right in the middle of the drought, which I guess was only slightly more terrible than his last birthday, where he dined on baby elephant.

Back in Uganda, you see that the water is lifeblood of the people. As in many civilisations, the density of the population is centred around coastlines, either Lake Victoria, the Nile River, or one of the many large lakes fed by the Nile. The government is trying to control the water levels on these bodies of water through the use of dams, mostly for the reason of electricity generation. But at what cost? Owen Falls Dam was built in the 1950's, submerging Ripon Falls (originally considered to be the true source of the Nile River), raising the level of the river and displacing hundreds of villagers. A new dam constructed further downstream in 2011 submerged the Bujugali Falls which was considered by many locals to be sacred (and also at one time considered to be the source of the Nile - you can sense a pattern here). Now yet another dam is being built that will undoubtedly decrease the water flow going through Murchison Falls:

As you might be able to tell, this is one of the most powerful waterfalls in the world in terms of cubic feet per second. It is also where the African Queen was filmed in 1951. Ernest Hemingway survived 2 plane crashes very near to this point. And soon it will be no more, or at least, not quite the same.

That's a hint. Come visit. We've only had two brave souls so far and we sent them home in one piece (mostly).