Crucial to life...

I've written so much about this life giving fluid over the years yet it is a never ending issue in my country and the world at large.

While our government, in the hope of bringing service to the people, has given birth to countless water bodies, these simply eat up vital resources and do not improve anything.

Just a couple of days ago, I was invited to attend a public forum by the Water Action Group (WAG), in my hometown, Mombasa, but, not everybody was represented since many did not even know of this meeting.

Then, all the various outfits, like the Water Company, Water Board, Water Resources Management Authority, Water Trust Fund, etc., got up to tell us whom we should see for whatever problem we might have. Example whom we should see for a water meter problem or an accounting problem, etc.

Now, most of us are thoroughly fed up with all these outfits that we have to deal with because none of them are accountable to the people, yet, they are paid hefty salaries to do their supposed jobs. There is too much bureaucracy involved in solving simple problems and wastage of precious time and money, something that these water outfits were created to save the average citizen, in the first place.

Anyway, there is a lot of unregulated or corruptly allowed water management in this town which none of the above mentioned 'organizations' want to hear about since they are the ones who were instrumental in all this happening.

Sometimes, I wonder if all my emails and blogs have any effect on the people concerned. It is like banging one's head against a brick wall!

And when we read all over that we should give up the bottled water habit, this is the ONLY water that we can be safely drunk in most developing countries since their governments have not put in place structures to make safe drinking water available to all. So, if we were to give up the bottled water habit, how would we survive? Drinking what kind of water?