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| Fetching water with donkey carts |
In many of the surrounding communities it is hard to find any trees or greenery. The roads are sandy and dusty, and so are most of the compounds of the mud-built houses. One of the local staff members explained, while driving through one of these communities, that the problem is really the water shortage. Because there is no running water system, people have to rely on the so called 'water donkey carts' that fetch water from the river Nile and offer it for sale in the villages. It surely makes sense that individuals therefore prefer to use this precious water for their own living instead of watering the plants or trees in their garden. Recently, there have been some community-based initiatives though to plant and maintain trees in some of these villages. The starting point of these initiatives is that there is a shared responsibility to make the communities greener. I can't wait (-and really hope!-) to see the same villages in a few years time; hopefully with a nice cool glass of water in my hand, seated in the shade of one of the plentiful lovely trees.
