Dirty water?!

No where on earth, the water tastes as good as at home in Wageningen. But since man cannot live by water alone…

Here, I easily drink away litres of water a day and as long as the water meets hygienic standards, I try not to complain. From the very expensive bottle we have shifted to the ‘sachets’ - half a litre sealed water bags of pure water. Besides the price, another disadvantage of the bottles is that most shops only have one or two in store, so they have sold out after ‘white man’ came by and you will have to visit some three shops to get your daily supply. This in the heat, makes you sweat so much that you will need yet another bottle…

Sachets can be bought in packets of ten litres, that just fit in your bicycle basket. The taste? It depends… the trick is to find water that has not been in the sun for a long time and to keep them cool or transfer them to bottles as soon as possible. Otherwise the plastic taste is verrrrry dominant indeed….

But it makes me feel ashamed to nag about the taste when others depend fully on the tap water of doubtful quality (?) or on even more unsure supplies. In the villages women have to walk for hours to meet the household’s water demand from the river.

So you would expect the people to be very happy when a development organisation comes to dig boreholes and put pumps. But… as a nice example of African irony:

The people complained: “The water is acidic. When you give it to the trees they die.” “The water from the bore hole is salty. We don’t cook with it or it will spoil our dishes.” They tell us and let me taste the crystal clear water from the borehole with the taste of exclusive Spa water or even Wageningen water...

Then they show the water that they prefer. “Nice river water”, pointing at the sandy, turbid water that they fetch far away and then settle with aluin and filter it with a piece of cloth. “But are you not afraid of the guinea worm?” “No we never have trouble with them”, they reassure me. Looking at some swollen bellies I wonder about other parasites….

Not withstanding these are the things that make me smile daily here in Ghana. They may be very frustrating for development workers. They might lead government officials to say that these farmers are backward and stupid. But does not it only show the truth in the Dutch saying:

“Over smaak valt niet te twisten / You can’t argue over taste…” ???