Tidbit on Water

The water systems here have been the most difficult changes for me. Ghana has an open sewer system and the tap water is unfit for drinking. These things have taken a lot of getting used to, but I suppose they are just part of living in a developing country.

Walking down the street I can look at the water, or whatever it is, mixed in with pieces of trash and debris floating down the sewer. I can see and smell it's contents, although I try not to. The most common way of crashing a car is driving it straight into the roadside sewer, which usually doesn’t damage the car too badly but can in some cases. Every now and then I will notice someone using the roadside sewer as their bathroom. I will also notice chickens, dogs and goats drinking and eating out of the sewer, the same animals that are used for eggs and meat. This almost make me want to become a vegan despite my love for meat, but that would be almost impossible because almost every meal has meat in it around here. The sewer has bad drainage in many areas. This is for many reasons including it has been clogged by trash in some areas, and Accra is a pretty flat city so it has been difficult for the city to prevent stagnation of many sections of the sewer. Speaking of stagnation, the sewer has accumulated into a lake near a highly populated slum on the outskirts of Accra. This lake is a big health concern. The city has tried numerous tactics to get the water flowing but nothing has worked. Hopefully sometime in the future Accra will have the finical means to tackle the drainage problems and cover the sewer.

Drinking out of a bag... it was not something that I was expecting to do during my time in Africa or ever for that matter, but it is what we do here. The tap water has been treated but still isn’t good enough for drinking. We go to the closest store to buy a bag full of bags of water to keep in our house. The water is cleaned and bagged by various factories in the city. I have come across some many unknown and sketchy brands of water but have stuck to the strategy of drinking what taste okay and dumping what doesn’t, which I like to think has saved me from sickness. The water bags are cheap (aprox. 3 cents each) and are sold everywhere individually or in bulk. There are also many other things that can be bought in individual bags for cheap prices such as toothpaste, shots of alcohol, chocolate drink mixes, etc. They are typically trashed anywhere (including straight into the sewer) after use and cause some environmental problems, but the environment isn’t the biggest concern around here. I sure hope that in the future Accra will have drinkable tap water like it once did. It sure will be nice to come home to that drinkable and delicious Oregon tap water!