Posts tagged with water.

The path to development: just a wild goose chase?

Raksha Vasudevan, August 6, 2009 at 10:54 AM

 

There's no doubt that my time here in Bangladesh has been exhilarating, exciting, and inspiring on a multitude of levels. But I can't deny that this country, for all its captivating people and places, has taken a toll on me. Beyond hunger and thirst, past disease and deprivation, I've seen the loss of dignity and hope that comes with the grinding poverty that haunts 40% of this country's population, or 156 million people (according to 2005 World Bank statistics). I see it every night in the prostitute who is a single mother of two and "sells her wares" on the corner across from our building, charging a humiliating 300 taka per customer (less than $5 Canadian). I see it every morning on the walk to work as I pass countless beggars: the wrinkled old woman with incredibly thick glasses, who must be at least 70 years old but has lost both legs and so is forced to drag herself along the sewage-ridden street with her hands, and in the young boy who has been burned so badly that he barely has any skin left. I was overwhelmed with it in a cruelly ironic moment as we left a restaurant with air conditioning that was almost too cold and uniformed waiters: on the sidewalk was a pregnant woman and her son (no more than 8 years old and naked) sprawled on the sidewalk, and whether they were sleeping or dead was a question that none of us had the courage to ask.

I argue with myself everyday about how anyone can possibly make a meaningful difference in the midst of such suffering? Whom do you help first - the prostitute selling her body, the old woman with no legs, the pregnant woman without food for herself or her children, or the young boy with no skin? And given harshly limited resources, what's the best way to help? Ideally, you'd give all those who need it, access to education, medical care, clean water and sanitation facilities, while ensuring that there are proper incentives for the recipients to actually make use of such services. The creation of jobs which make it possible for individuals and families to sustain and expand these benefits is also essential. These measures are the bare minimum, and don't even address the underlying causes of poverty. Dealing with the deeper problems, such as widespread corruption in the government and police force, a lack of lucrative natural resources, and severe vulnerability to natural disasters (all of which apply to Bangladesh's case) is much more challenging.

The massive scope of the issues that face this country on its road to development have alternately made me feel scared, discouraged and dis-empowered. I still have no clear answers, no for-sure feeling about whether almost half the nation's people will manage to pull themselves out of poverty within the next 10, 50 or 100 years, and no sense about whether the corruption that is so pervasive here will subside. But the country has seen change, strong and uplifting, in many areas: in the development of the garment industry which has provided jobs (leading to 6% average GDP growth over the last six years), in the effectiveness of the NGO sector which has improved the lives of thousands through providing food, education, clean water and credit, in life expectancies that have risen as maternal mortality and birth rates have dropped. And I see the end result of these changes, and that's what makes me believe that the path to development is more than a wild goose chase: when I meet people who grew up with seven siblings but have chosen to only have one or two children themselves, when I see the delight on the faces of children and adults as the NGO that I'm working for successfully tests out the new pipe and filtering system that will provide the 700+ slum residents with clean drinking water, when my room-mates and I cook noodles and play cartoons for a gang of skinny street kids every week so that they can - for at least a few hours a week - have the chance to actually be kids.

Moments like those don't make me think that the challenges of development are any easier or smaller, but it does make me realize that progress on a smaller scale is still progress, and is still meaningful in a way that dollar figures and statistics can't possibly capture. And more than anything else, that's what has made my time here truly eye-opening.

Image gallery from Raksha and Helen 

Tagged with poverty, bangladesh, development, education, water, food, credit, progress, corruption, mortality, help | Comments (2) |

When fish get water and people don’t

Helen Hsu, July 9, 2009 at 11:24 AM

After two months in Kenya, I experienced an unexpected culture shock.

It was not the living conditions in the slums, or the policemen who take leisurely strolls around town holding their giant rifles, or the riots, or the tear gas from the riots, that gave me this unsettling sentiment; but the lavish lifestyle of the wealthy.

Recently, my work - the Youth Centre-Nairobi - ran a VCT and clinic outreach program in a small slum called Mitumba to provide testing and curative services to the local population.

The informal settlement houses around 4,000 residents, and there exists a jarring contrast between the settlement itself, and the fancy, Western-style housing - equipped with satellite dishes - directly adjacent. They are separated merely by a wall with barbed wires.

It is a well-known fact that almost every upper- and middle-class residential area in Nairobi has a slum nearby, but this is the first time I witnessed such proximity. An irony lies in the fact that many slums exist due to the beautiful residential area next door - these are the workers, and their families, who were hired to construct those houses; and it is more economical for them to build their own shacks next to work rather than commute on a daily basis.

Much aid has been poured into the larger, famous slums such as Kibera and Mathare, but the smaller slums such as Mitumba are still neglected. There are no water pipes or electrical wiring running through the area, nor is there proper waste or sewage treatment. The lack of access to clean drinking water has led to a cholera outbreak. It is one thing to read about cholera in "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and it is another to be told explicitly to avoid food from the area due to the possibility of contracting the disease.

On the open field where we set up our tents, one could see a giant water tank. It was a project initiated by the local MP to give the community a means of storing water. Unfortunately, the project was never completed, due allegedly to corruption, and now the walls are cracked in ruins. I am still not sure how to reconcile this image with the beautiful houses on the other side of the wall.

The next day, I attended a meeting at a place called Village Market elsewhere in town. I was not prepared for what I saw - a large-scale mall with architecture reminiscent of that found in sunny California: an open-concept verandah with food courts selling dishes at double or triple what I spend weekly on food; fashionably dressed "wazungus" walking around with sunglasses and high heels; high-end retail stores such as Mango that are found in North America; and fountains. Fountains for aesthetic purposes with free-flowing water. And two koi ponds. The entire city of Nairobi suffers from water shortage problems with water frequently and regularly cut to many parts, but this mall, catering to wealthy locals and foreigners, has water for fish.

In Mitumba, I could not eat, because of the looks the children would give me as I ate. We gave a banana to a small boy (at left is a photo of him eating the banana).

I know the world is not just, but reading about injustice and inequality on paper, and witnessing it within 24 hours, are completely different stories. I have not shaken the haunting emotional impact of experiencing Village Market right after Mitumba, and I hope I do not forget it.

I never before grasped the great fortune of having the ability to drink the water that comes out of my tap. I cannot say I really do now, either. I have only caught a glimpse of the other side, and only begun to grasp how lucky I am, how lucky we all are.

Tagged with poverty, wealth, slums, kenya, water, clean, drinking, mitumba, culture, shock | Comments (11) |