Monday, October 16, 2006

Water, water, where?


There are lots of fires in Nairobi. Almost everywhere you go someone is roasting maize, cooking chipati, or burning trash along the road. The air is often filled with smoke and the scent of burnt plastic. Fire is everywhere, but sometimes water can be hard to come by. Because of the dry climate and the altitude I tend to drink a lot more water here. Unfortunately the tap water is not safe to drink, and in any case tap water shortages occur regularly. Our apartment complex was without water for about a week. Fortunately we had a bit of water stored up, but we still had to go a couple days without showers, flushing toilets, etc. . .Compared to the rural areas of Kenya, Nairobi has an abundant supply of clean water. A few years ago though the Nairobi City Council purchased a large quantity of chlorine to help purify the water supply. They learned after the fact that the chlorine vendor had sold them chalk instead of chlorine and had run off with the money.

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