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Field Notes
Water. Works.
“Are you ready to work?” the village elder asked. “We’ve had too many people come here, make promises and do nothing. We need you to be serious.”
It wasn’t the reaction I expected. We had come there, flush with enthusiasm, bringing grand ideas to develop the local economy and create jobs.
It will be wonderful, we promised. The villagers were not buying.
Water. That’s all they wanted. Water. That’s it.
It is a modestly sized village of about 4,000 people. While located not far from Kandahar City, its residents seem to be more or less ignored and left to their own devices.
They are desperately poor, with little work or money for food, much less comfort. Only two of the community’s dozen wells actually choked out water, forcing most to drink brackish water from a nearby canal.
Others, mostly women and children, walk long distances to beg from other villages. Hard work when the weather hits 45 Celsius.
“We are thirsty. Our children are sick from dirty water. Dig us wells, show us you mean what you say, and we can take it from there,” said an elder. He said he had grown weary of the endless parade of aid agencies that talk, talk – but never deliver.
They had a point. There’s been too much learned discussion about development in Kandahar and not enough get-the-boots-dirty work. How could I argue with their priorities? Water is life.
“Yes,” I told him, “we’re here to work. Let’s start with some wells”.
A few days later, our team was on site, digging wells. A few weeks later, water access increased five fold. While 500 people still had to wait in line for water, it used to be 2,500.
I dropped by the village to see a new well pump water for the first time. There was a horde of kids hanging over the pumps, watching and giggling as the water flowed out of the spout. While this is not the best way to manage a scarce resource, on that day, I could not care less. It was all good.
And while I savoured the fresh cool taste of water drawn deep, I knew I had done next to nothing to make it happen, yet I was so irritatingly cheerful you’d think that I dug the thing by hand.
Drew