I was talking to one of our translators today about the poverty in Swaziland. This is what she said:
If we only had water, 99% of our problems would be solved
If we only had water, people could plant their own fruits and vegetables and get the nutrition that they need to get better.
If we only had water, we could plant a community garden. All the teenagers could work in it and they would be tired at the end of the day. They would go home and sleep instead of getting in trouble, and doing sexually promiscuous things because they have nothing to do.
Thousands of people are starving each day because they don’t have food. If they only had water they would be able to grow their own food and their children wouldn’t starve. They could also sell their crops for profit that could get them basic things they need to live.
Swaziland is a beautiful country, surrounded by mountains, but very dry. Many people walk miles to get water, which most of the time isn’t even clean. Yesterday I helped a woman get drinking water. We walked about a kilometer (=.6 mile) to a bridge, climbed down a latter into the muddy river, and filled dirty jugs with water from this river. Climbed back up the latter and walked another kilometer uphill with the jogs back to her house. This is the water she drinks, baths, and does her laundry with. And to think I was complaining because the clean water I have to drink tastes salty.
One out of every five deaths worldwide is due to water-related illness.
Did you know that the leading cause of death in the world is not AIDS, even though 50% of this country has AIDS…it’s not having clean drinking water.
If they only had water.
