The dry, cracked ground in the Lake Manyara region of Northern Tanzania speaks for itself. The rainy season has entirely neglected the area, plaguing it with hosts of dust storms, decimated crops, and thirsty people. Meanwhile in Arusha, a short 45-minute drive east of Lake Manyara, the rain has thoroughly saturated the land. It is a contradiction of fatal proportions for millions of Tanzanians and one of a simple nod of the head for millions of Americans.
Before studying abroad in Tanzania, my awareness of the world water crisis was rarely reflected in my actions. On the one hand, I did not insist that my water was bottled from an impermeable artesian aquifer in Fiji, but neither did I insist upon quenching the thirst of over 1 billion people who do not have access to safe drinking water. Studying abroad in nation where millions of those 1 billion reside has radically altered my perspective.
In the past three months, I have become friends with several of the people in the “1 billion” statistic. Lalahe Mollel, a 22-year-old Maasai warrior from Lake Manyara, is no longer a statistic in my book. In order for Lalahe and his family to access fresh water, they have to trek through the bush for four hours. As I have learned, even warriors cannot rival East Africa’s seemingly merciless climate. Karla Lund, a fellow American student studying abroad in Tanzania, accompanied Lalahe on the trek one day and discovered that the one watering hole that nourishes an entire village filled with mud. “It was an extremely exhausting journey that left us thirsty and empty-handed,” Lund said.
Water is not only necessary for drinking in Tanzania. Agriculture accounts for more than 40 percent of the gross domestic product and entire villages rely on small-scale subsistence farming to survive. Therefore, almost every Tanzanian is highly dependent on the annual rainy seasons to bring water, crops, and income.
Unfortunately for Lalahe and millions of other Tanzanians, the recent erratic climate changes have caused severe droughts in some areas and uncontrollable flooding in others. “Climate change is affecting Africa right now,” said Daniel Pallangyo, an Environmental Law professor at Makumira University of Tanzania, “Africa stands to be one of the most vulnerable environmental regions because a majority of African countries are too poor to adapt to the changed environment.”
So what does this mean for Miami students thousands of miles away from the problem?
According to Jenny Krzmarzick, co-organizer of Miami’s Running Water 5k, “Spreading awareness about such an issue, such as the need for clean drinking water, is important so that students are inspired to act and advocate for such a cause and so that they may become more aware of the global challenges that others face.”
For me, Lalahe Mollel represents the billion, and knowing the billion has taught me more than any classroom could. Solving the world water crisis is a seemingly impossible task, and it is easy to feel like any aid is a mere drop in the bucket. But when put in the billion’s perspective, that one drop in the bucket is one that was not there before.
Lalahe Mollel, 22, collects the last few drops of water from the only source around his village.
1 comments:
why are you such a talented writer, muff? step aside, AC, kelsey knows what's up.
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