How Thirsty Are You Right Now?
I'm lazy. I like to heave myself up from my favourite chair and open the refrigerator that I spent too much money on, and find the fizz that I need. There was a time when I couldn't afford the fizz, but now we all can. So what? The 'what' is that I can remember being thirsty. Really, throat-parched thirsty. Food you can do without, but go without water and life really can stop dead in its tracks. I was in the middle of Africa and we'd been without water for a couple of days. The exertion was full on, the heat tremendous, and I was gagging. I finally found a base camp and guzzled the first can of water I could find. It was bad water. I came down with amoebic dysentery and after some unpleasant time got casevaced.
Now, as we all know, there are plenty of places in the world where water is scarce, but what if you lived in the desert and you knew there was water beneath the sand but someone stopped you digging for it? For those of you who might have read 'The Devil's Breath' you will know it is set in Namibia where Max Gordon meets a San Bushman boy called !Koga. And if anyone has scrolled through the journal pages either here or on my Puffin Danger Zone website, (http://thedangerzone.co.uk) you will have seen the photographs of me meeting Bushmen representatives at the British Houses of Parliament a few years ago.
I have just had a newsletter from Survival International who tell me that a Botswana High Court judge has banned the Bushmen from drilling for water on their lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. There's no fridge door for them to swing open - there's not even a tap. They are faced with a walk of 380 kilometres to get water. If you're a tourist staying at the local luxury game reserve lodge, you can splash in the swimming pool and ask for extra ice in your fizz. And to add insult to injury if you're the mining company planning to dig for diamonds - you can use all the water you want.
Read the whole sad story here: [email protected] - and if you've got a couple of minutes before you pop the next can - just write a letter.
It's a story for our modern times. Indigenous people are the cornerstone of our ancestors.
I'm going to write a letter. I've been thirsty.
