Women hauling water. Morocco. 1982
Posted by razzbuffnik on July 22nd, 2008
I had to change the washers in my shower taps today and it got me thinking about how we take household running water for granted.
Back in 1982 I stayed in Morocco for about three or four months and one of the things that I really hated doing was getting water from wells. Many of the places I stayed didn’t have running water. Because Morocco is quite a dry place most of the wells are very deep, and it takes quite a bit of effort to haul up a bucket (about 4 L or a gallon) of water 50 m (about 150 feet). I never saw a well in Morocco with a windlass and the water in a bucket on the end of a slimy rope had to be pulled up by hand.
The people in Morocco wipe their backsides with their left hand (no paper) and one has to use both hands to pull up a rope. You can’t drink un-boiled water from the wells for the reason that they are all contaminated with E.coli.
In the town of Tarrazout where I stayed for about a month and a half it was always such a drag to go and get water, because there was only one well, and there would always be plenty of other people in front of you. It was usually women that had to haul the water and to me, it seemed to be quite a social event for them. Everybody would take their time just yakking away with each other, and quite often it would take me about an hour or two just to fetch one jerry can (25 L) of water.
What made matters worse in Tarrazout was that the village idiot used to turn up with a donkey, loaded with very big barrels and spent about an hour or two filling them up. Every time he turned up at the well all the women’s eyes used to roll. They couldn’t stand him and you could tell it wasn’t because he was retarded. It was because they had waited so long on so many occasions in the past, while he filled up his barrels.
I took the picture above when I was travelling between Tarrazout and Goulimine. The women were pulling up water from a well out in the middle of nowhere. I couldn’t see any buildings nearby, they must have walked for miles and a very hot wind was blowing.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:11 am
Reason # 342 why I am glad you blog: I learn things. And, then, I appreciate what I have. Just got a glass of water for the hell of it. Wasn’t even thirsty.
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Reading your posts on Marocco I got the impresion that it is not a country you will re-visit anytime soon.
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Pat
Sometimes it’s good to go through a little hardship so we can enjoy the little things that we take for granted.
Grasswire.
You’re right I have a lot of other places that I would much rather return to. Morocco is a very visually beautiful country unfortunately it’s populated with lots of people that I thought were behaving badly. I’ll be writing more in the future about Morocco.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Yes, it is truly painful to realize that over there, on the other side of the planet, there are millions with no water, even dying because of that…, while we wash our cars, take endless showers and baths… It is really terrible how our minds, at least mine, eagerly wants to suppress this awareness, deny it all… and take another relaxing bath.
July 28th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Your photos are your paintings. You say you’re not a painter but this photo confirms that you are.
As do the many others on your blog.
You’ve portrayed an image of something most of us take totally for granted- the simplicity of turning on a faucet or a light switch and having that need fulfilled.
What I’ve learned from living on this island ( St Croix ) is that water ( from rain, when it happens….) comes from our cistern and not the city pipe, and is therefore finite, and our electricity ( highest rate in the nation ) is often fluctuating - sometimes out ), is that we cannot separate ourselves from where we live without its’ consequences of ignorance and greedy abundance.
Your travel experiences are a marvelous, descriptive read.
July 28th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Bonnie
You are too kind.
Here in Australia we are also short of water. I think that there has been a shift in attitude towards water here lately due to the last couple of years of drought. People are becoming more aware of what a finite resource it is and how hard life would be without it.
It has become my reason for not washing the car…… and I’m sticking to it!