“ The Burden of Thirst ” is a story in the national geographic magazine written by Tina Rosenberg on April 2010. The photographer of the story is Lynn Johnson. The story is about a population having difficulties of having enough water for their domestic use. Tina points out that the problem of accessing clean water is a challenge to many nations. Her story is based in Ethiopia, where she narrates the difficulties women undergo to fetch water. According to her narrative, people travel over 50 minutes to bring water down the streams (Tina, 2010). Moreover, she highlights that the rivers are in steep, slippery places where they scramble down on large rocks and thorn bushes. According to the culture of the story setting, women have the responsibility to fetch water from rivers. Therefore, girl children do not go to school because they have to spend their time helping their mother to carry water down the stream. She asserts that in a day, a woman could spend approximately eight hours of fetching water.
Lack of clean water has caused a lot of health problems among the community members. Their children suffer from diarrhea, and over 5000 individuals are treated with waterborne diseases. There is poor hygiene in the locality (Tina, 2010). Binayo says that she washes her hands once in a day, bathes occasionally, and wash clothes once in a year. Further health care providers are not washing their hands when attending to their patients; thus, the increasing infection spread among the patients. Nevertheless, Tina points out that the critical way of reversing the cycle of water misery is to bring clean water accessible to the population.
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Having been born in Konso village, life was not more comfortable. At the age of seven-years, my mum had started training me to go to the river. I could make one trip to the river in a day while she made almost five. Although she was educated and worked as a teacher in one of the village schools, she still made time to fetch water for the family. My mother had come from other parts of the country where water was scarce but not as problematic as in Konso. With a hard life in the village, my mother decided to take me to my maternal grandmother so that I could have some time to do my studies.
At the age of eight years, I relocated to go and stay with my grandmother. Although they had a borehole in the home, at times, we could have to fetch water from the nearby well, but at least it was not as far as our river back in the village. I had enough time to learn and do my studies. I worked hard in class, and most of the time, I topped in examinations. However, at times, I could visit my homeland during vacation and help my mother fetch water from streams. Waterborne diseases were inseparable from us, and we were frequent visitors to the hospital.
At school, I worked very hard since I wanted to become one of the politicians in the nation and change the lives of the villagers. Nonetheless, I am happy that the government of the Republic has set aside some cash for bringing water near homes.
Reference
Tina Rosenberg. (2010, April). The Burden of Thirst. National Geographic magazine .
