Pic: De-Rex Lodge, Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa State, Nigeria
Water as we all know is very important to our lives. We use it for so many things, knowingly and unknowingly, but the most thing we use is for, is our body.
We drink water everyday, as well as bath with it, but how well do we treat it?
Drinking of water doesn't just sound as it sounds while we say it, but it does so much work in our body which we don't know. Water is very essential for digestion of food, but what happens when you take the wrong water?
When we take untreated water, it causes sickness, cholera, as well as other extremely harmful deceases and sicknesses to the body. Most times, these deceases can not be cured, but can only be sustained.
In some places here in my country, Nigeria, we do not have clean waters. Bayelsa State to be precise where I am currently schooling, is one of the places where they do not have clean waters. The community where I school is Otuoke, and so far, that's the worse place to get good and clean water.
How then do I cope with this?
I've been schooling here for 4 years now and I must say that it is very difficult to get clean water. The lodge where I stay doesn't have clean water, but there is a work around. They tend to fill the water tank with sand which absorbs the muddy color of the water, and after some days, the sand blocks the pipe from which the water flows out from, causing the flow of water while fetching to be very slow.
I have not used this water to cook, neither have I at anytime drank it, but I use it only for washing of plates and bathing. At the very first time I used that water 4 years ago, I had reactions on my body, but I was able to fight them off with antiseptics.
There are places in Yenagoa (Capital city of Bayelsa state) where there are good and clean waters, and water companies produce sachet water from there, and sell across other parts of the state. It is these sachet waters I buy for drinking, as well as cooking.
Most people boil the water for a very long time and then allow it to cool down before drinking, but that doesn't change the color of the water.
It is advicable to boil water before drinking, yes we know, but what happens when the water still maintains its orange or muddy color?
I am much comfortable buying and drinking sachet water coming in from Yenagoa.