What happened next was just staggering! We ourselves could hardly believe it, and certainly the locals struggled to come to terms with the fact that the perseverance of two “rooineks” had won the day. Much to the surprise of us all, a decision was made in Salisbury to install a borehole at the end of our back yard. We were so excited. We and our nearest neighbours were going to have a continuous supply of clean water! Hurrah!
I recall when the team of African workers, with a White supervisor, turned up early one morning, and began drilling down into the red soil to reach the water table, from which a pipe, attached to a pump, would deliver water into a huge cylindrical metal tank, perched high on a timber framework.
I have no idea how the workers managed to get the tank up on that framework, because I didn’t see it happen. John and I were both at school. We came home at the end of the day to see this enormous wood and metal contraption, looking like some giant, four-legged beetle, with a round, cylindrical back. It didn’t have any feelers, but it did have a long metal ladder going up one side right to the very top. This, my father said, was to allow workers access for repairs if need be.
The borehole structure, towering into the African sky, and much higher than our roof top, was certainly not the prettiest object to look at from the kitchen window, but we didn’t care. It worked perfectly, and it served a purpose in more ways than one. Not only did our three houses never again run out of water, and subsequently the swimming pool was brought back to life, too, but our family gained the respect of the villagers for having continued, despite endless bureaucratic delays, to insist on the rights of us all to have clean drinking water.
Water, water, any time, clean, safe and vital to us, all! It was wonderful!
Today, as in the past, I continue to wish that everyone, no matter where he or she lives, should have access to safe drinking water.
So it was with great joy, and perhaps, relief, too, that I heard, in April of this year, 2022, our Canadian Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, announcing in the Budget, that the government intends giving more funding to end long-term drinking water advisories for First Nations peoples. $400 million will be spent over the next 24 months, on building various infrastructure projects on Native reserves. Two-thirds of that money will be going towards water and wastewater infrastructure. Only then will everyone in our lovely land be able to turn on a tap and acquire fresh water, safe in the knowledge that no-one is going to fall ill, or even die, through drinking unsafe water. It is a right, I feel, not a privilege. I know, from experience, too, how much of relief it will be to all those families to have that water at their disposal. At long last!
