Standing on the Border: A Chad Diary
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DAY 2
Thirsty for Relief: Saturday March 10, 2007 10:35 pm
GOZ BEIDA — I only have a few brief minutes to write tonight because the generator will go off soon.
Sarah and I arrived in Goz Bieda, a town in eastern Chad yesterday flying on a UN flight from Abeche and it is hot. In fact it is the kind of hot the even breathing makes me sweat and I have to rest in the afternoon because the 104 degrees makes my brain feel tired. Goz Beida makes N’Djamena seem chilly.
We are staying in relative luxury here; we have three good meals a day, electricity for most the day, and most importantly we have water from 6pm to 6am every day. Except today. For some reason the taps were empty all day. After a sweating like this, a shower would be nice but a bucket bath will have to do. It is really okay when I think about the woman I saw today who hadn’t washed her clothes for over a year due to lack of water.
In this town, the woman’s story isn’t entirely unusual. Right outside of the town of Goz Beida is the Jabal refugee camp, housing Sudanese who have left their homes in Darfur and where water is a scarce commodity. We examined the water system yesterday and near a gravity fed water tank the scarcity of water became apparent. Women and children had formed a long line, waiting with their jerry cans in the hot dry sun. This was particularly disturbing when I realized that these are the lucky people. Although they were waiting in unbearable heat and far from their homes they would be rewarded with precious water. They would be able to fill their jerry cans, put them on their heads, and walk several kilometers back to their shelters. Water is women’s work here, as is cooking, cleaning, and raising the children. There are few men around. Many have been killed, some joined the rebel army, a few are day laborers for the NGO’s, and some just sit in the shade.
It really hit home today just how valuable this water is, however, while I was visiting water points in the camp for displaced Chadians at Gourungoum. We refer to this as an IDP camp (as opposed to a refugee camp like Jabal that is primarily populated by people who have crossed an international border). The distinction between IDP and refugee may seem unnecessary, but there was quite a difference in the conditions within the camps between these groups. Surprisingly, the IDP camps appeared to be worse off than the camps of Sudanese refugees. There was less of everything: food, water, shelter.
As we approached the camp in Gourungoum we stopped at a water hole that had been dug by some entrepreneurial displaced Chadians. The water hole was about eight meters deep with a man in the bottom of the well sending up alternate buckets of water and sand. They would then use “pur” water purifier (provided by one of the NGOs) and would barter the water for grain or other goods. The water quality was very poor and turbid but because it remains such a commodity there was a line of people waiting.
We then passed two water points in close proximity to each other, a bore hole with a concrete around it and a foot pump attached. It took quite a bit of effort for the women to use the foot pump but the water that came out ran steadily and was very clear. Not far away there was another bore hole with piping to taps but was not yet turned on. The project for today was to convert the bore hole to a water bladder site. Work had just begun and the completion of the project was hours away but the line of women and jerry cans was already very long.
Following the water point visits we met up with a public health promoter and accompanied her on several home visits to do hygiene education. This included inspecting the grounds of a home (often filled with animal dung) and talking about the importance of cleaning up the animal dung, as well as the use of soap, clean water, and latrines.
Later this afternoon I met with Eric, an American who has been living in Chad for the past year working on public health promotion with Oxfam Great Britain. He visits the camps here daily to find Sudanese refugees and internally displaced Chadians who are willing to trade their time for soap and tea. The topic: hand washing. The problem: how to promote hand washing when there is no water.
It’s been a long hot day and right now I really do appreciate the fact that I can even have a bucket bath.
