💧 Water, Water, Everywhere - Nor Any Drop to Drink 💧

4 adults/teens +3 kids = lots of laundry

**As always, what I write is what I have heard out and about. My writing is subjective - some inaccuracies may exist. 

Mr. Google says that the phrase "Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink"  is from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It means that despite being surrounded by something, you cannot benefit from it.

This precisely describes the situation here in Roatan. This island is surrounded by the idyllic, tropical Caribbean Sea. This water is so inviting - unless you're looking for a drink of water to quench your thirst, or water to bathe in, or a bucketful to wash your clothes in. 

This week one of my friends sent an "Hola!" After our regular pleasantries she said to me "Aqui no hay agua. Es feo." (Here, there is no water. It is ugly/nasty.) Water arrives at the houses on a rotation throughout her colonia. When water is pumped from the community well, it comes through the pvc pipes into containers on the individual properties. 

Pipes with water go up, up, up to tanks on individual properties.

This area received water 20 days ago. Not long ago, water arrived every 4 days. As demand for water increased the days between water days increased. My friend is hoping she will get water on Sunday or maybe Tuesday. Most people buy bottled water for drinking and cooking but it is much too expensive for laundry and bathing. This family has one cracked water tank and 2 old refrigerators-on-their-sides to store water in when it comes through the pipes, so even being very frugal, they will always be in a water crisis.

People in Roatan are in a serious situation with water. People with their own wells (like us), or cisterns/tanks that can be filled by tank trucks, or people living in gated-communities have water to run down the drain (or water for a cold shower on a hot afternoon!). Many of our neighbours receive water from a local entrepreneur who pipes from his well to many homes, although recently even this water source has had to be rationed. Many hundreds of people who live in the nearby colonias are suffering. Wherever we are, the conversation always turns to water. 

The simple reason that there is no water has to do with the rainy season that wasn't last year. It is bone dry here. A less simple reason for the water problems began before the drought and extends far beyond tiny Roatan. Deforestation is a worldwide issue with various causes. Roatan's reason for water shortage and deforestation are tied together. Both have to do with uncontrolled population growth from unemployed, displaced, frightened families coming from mainland Honduras. (Those displaced Hondurans aren't all going to the US - many are making their way here.) 

Larry read that the police estimate that the population on the island is now 100,000. Ten years ago when we first came, the estimate was 30,000 people. There isn't enough cleared land for houses/casitas (shacks) so widespread cutting and burning occurs. Land is being cleared, and illegally sold and resold so people can put up a shelter. Squatting is common. If and when rain does come, the water will rush down the bare hills and out to the sea.

Recently - so much clearing of land and building. 
Who owns what?  Plan?

I really want to find a positive in this water problem.  I think there is an increased demand for water because more people are enjoying a higher standard of living. There are more indoor bathrooms with showers and flush-ish toilets. People are placing sheets on their beds, using towels and curtains that require washing. Automatic washers were unheard of in most homes we visited when we first came here but now there are some people using them. All of these things require more water. It's a good news/bad news kind of thing.

How does the lack of water affect day-to-day living for many of our friends?  One mom told me that despite only having a small pan of previously-used water, she needs to wash the school uniform shirts each night. The kids must wear their clean uniform each day or pay 5 lempiras to enter the school yard in street clothes. Or, stay home.....  

The church clothes-line is never empty.

Some of our church families have been able to bring their laundry to the church. There is a well on the church property, and many are benefiting from that. A long clothes-line stretches across the church yard and is always full of little-people clothes. While at the church for laundry, people also bring their soap - for a refreshing shower! 

Katie climbs up the hill and down to her family with full bottles of water.  IrmaLinda lives in the highest house I have visited. She lives alone so she tells me she only gets water jugs one time in a week. 

Other families purchase bottles of water at 35 lempiras per bottle (a worker makes 300 lempiras for a day’s work). A “shower” is a bowl of water poured over the head after soaping hair and body. 

Normally, water comes on a regular schedule about once in 8 days. The cost of receiving water is about 240 lempiras per month - more or less depending on the colonia. It doesn't matter how much water you collect in your containers - the cost is the same. Now, the cost is still 240 lempiras, but water comes once or twice a month. 

I think the thing that is most discouraging is the overall attitude of some of the people themselves. There has always been a sense of unworthiness - "What can we expect?" is one defeatist attitude. The other attitude is a sense of entitlement. One colonia had their water system - wells, pumps, and extensive pipeline system provided by a ministry. We have heard more than once "the Americanos are bad. The Americanos need to fix the pump.... build a new well..... etc....."  These attitudes are surprising to those of us who are independent-I-want-to-do-it-myself people. It is as it is.

I want to finish on a positive note. I was discussing this blog with Oscar, one of our students who has graduated and is working. (woohoo!) I asked his opinion of the water problem in his colonia. He said "Maybe we should talk with the whole community and think to buy a new pump and do another one. (well). So that way we can have more and more often."  I didn't hear any negativism in what he was suggesting. This is such a hopeful thing - a positive thinker!

And now I am reflecting on my day so far. I've used water to clean, do laundry, cook, and do dishes. And now? Time for a refreshing drink of water. And my friends in the Colonia - "Esperando agua." In Spanish the verb "esperar" means to wait and also to hope.  "Waiting for water."  "Hoping for water." 💧