Mai, Mai everywhere

Eritrea is part of the Sahel, a zone of scrubby semi-desert which lies to the South of the Sahara and, despite heavy rains at certain times of year (the actual time varies depending on the zone within the country), water shortage is a constant fact of life.

Such shortage and a creaking water delivery system mean that water is never constantly available even in Asmara and, to act as a reservoir for the majority of the time when mains water is off, Asmara houses usually have large water tanks somewhere on their roofs.

Given that water is so precious you can imagine our consternation last Saturday when we came home to find it cascading onto the tiles at the side of our house. After clambering onto the roof in the dark I managed to ascertain that the ball-cock in our tank wasn't working properly and the tank was overflowing onto the roof. So, I thought, let's just shut off the supply at the stop-cock further upstream. That wasn't working at all so the flow couldn't be stopped now panic was setting in.

Back on the roof I managed to break the arm of the stop-cock completely in an effort to force it shut and in the meantime our reserve-reserve chemical-drum-tank was nearly full of overflow water collected in a bucket. Eventually I managed to stop up the leak with a rag.

What I couldn't believe was the feeling of guilt at letting so much water run away and this was compounded this weekend when the valve on the toilet cistern failed to close and we failed to notice it resulting in an empty roof tank this time. Then the tank filled to overflow again. I'm actually aching from carrying buckets and shinning up onto the roof repeatedly. Yet our water access is really easy compared to most of Eritrea where water comes from boreholes and often has to be carried home several kilometers.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that leaks and spills can turn into major events here. Now if only that plumber would actually come and do the repairs as he said he would ...

P