When the earth becomes dry, rain water saves lives
by Rikiaua Takeke
‘Collecting water is my responsibility, but it used to be hard work,’ smiles the timid Angela (12). She stays in Tabieuea, a small village in North Tarawa, one of the islands in Kiribati, with her aunt and uncle. Living in this remote place in the Pacific, is not easy. Water is scarce and the weather harsh. Families bands are strong and each in the family has its role.
Angela’s uncle, Amon Timan (62) taught Angela everything about the water. They sit in their open house along the blue lagoon covered with palm trees. With Angela preparing tea, Amon takes the lead in elaborating the challenges they face. It’s a paradise scenery, but the simple life can be tough.
Amon is the former head of the Kiribati’s Social Welfare Division, who was acknowledged for getting Kiribati to ratify the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1995. Together with his energetic wife, Tekinati, they lead community projects, including UNICEF’s Rain Water Harvesting Tanks project, known as the Kiriwatsan project.
In the old days, water was not a problem as the family collected it out of an open well near their home. ‘Before, the water from our neighbour’s well was very fresh and clean. Now, with more people using it, a persisting dry climate and occasional king tides that filled it with sea water, it has become scarce, quite polluted and unsafe, particularly for our grandchildren,’ says Amon.
So, they dug another well, 200 metres from their compound, at the middle of the atoll, the last place to find clean and fresh water. Asking Angela how it was like to walk several times a day to the well, she responds: ‘My thin arms would really hurt from carrying the big buckets full of water. Sometimes I feared they would be ripped off from my body.’
Realising the hardship, Amon got a relative to build a ‘Tamana’ pump that brings in water from the well right to their compound. It is a simple technology that uses valves and PVC piping that allows water to flow out when one pulls a stick fixed into a slanting pipe, acting like a huge syringe.
‘When the pump was finished, collecting water became easy and I was able to spend more time studying and learning how to cook from my aunty, Tekinati,’ said Angela.
To prepare for droughts, Amon also has a small water tank placed underneath a gutter connected to the corrugated iron roof of their open kitchen. The tank is able to collect up to 300 litres of rain water.
‘Rain water is better in quality than well water,’ says Amon. ‘It is why I bought this tank. It is also why members of our community are happy to receive the 10,500 litre water tanks from UNICEF and contributed their free labour and local materials to complete them.’
The UNICEF water tanks are part of the Rain Water Harvesting Tanks project that was funded by the European Union, which saw 17 tanks given to villages of North Tarawa, including four to Amon’s village. All four contain fresh rain water from a few recent brief showers. Community members are very possessive over them and ensure the water is well shared and used amongst themselves.
‘These huge UNICEF water tanks, are a good source of clean water today for us and our children, like Angela and my many grandchildren,’ says Amon. ‘They are also our security against well water contamination from the ever increasingly king tides, caused by climate change.’
And he should know, after all he is also the Community Engagement Expert for the Kiribati (Climate Change) Adaptation III Project (KAP III).
Under the European Union funded project Kiriwatsan 355 rainwater harvesting systems were provided to more than 100 villages in Kiribati.
