Water and Wellness

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Currently, I'm living in a hostel with 80 rooms, water scarcity is not a concern. With a solar-powered pumping system, water flows almost round the clock, unlike other hostels that suffer from lack of water and students have to go the extra miles to get water. Our four large tanks store ample water, ensuring each room has access to clean water. This allows us to focus on other aspects in our lives, instead of running helter skelter in search of water.

The supply in this hostel is way better compared to my former hostel, where we had to run to different places for clean water. There were about 40 of us managing just one tank. There was no well, so we had to rely on a pumping machine powered by a borehole. To worsen the case, the electricity was bad, which meant we had to consistently contribute to fuel our generator and power the pumping machine. I remember one of my worst experiences in that hostel- there was fuel scarcity, so we couldn’t pump the water. We had no choice but to go from one hostel to another in search of water. In our quest for water, we were utterly embarrassed by students in another hostel. One thing about me is that I hate public embarrassment. I vowed not to ever visit that hostel again.

In this hostel, we had been enjoying smooth, running water until something terrible happened. Our pumping machine got spoilt. Let me break it down; as I mentioned earlier, there are about 80 rooms in my hostel. We have nothing less than 2 students per room. So approximately, there are about 160 students. Unfortunately, we have just one well in the hostel, which means all 160 of us had to fetch from that well.

Luckily, I had stored water in my reserviour before the pumping machine got spoilt. No one extpected it to happen, so not so many people stored water. I was able to survive for a few days, but when it ran out, the real struggle started. I remember waking up in the midnight by 2am so no one would be awake and I’d fetch from the well. The well water becalme dirty due to the fact that so many people had been fetching from it. it got to a point that it even dried up. At one point, there was no water in the hostel at all. People had to result to buying satchet water to cook, bath, and do other stuff. Some people couldn’t even take a shower for days. It was so bad.

I also bought bags of satchet water, which I used to cook. I’d always go to my friend’s place to bath. It wasn’t until after about 2 weeks that the pumping machine got fixed. Now, we are enjoying uninterrupted flow of clean water.

When it comes to our health, the type of water we drink is really important. I have realized that our body system works differently. What works for you, might not work well for me. Just because you consume something and it doesn’t have any side effects doesn't mean it would work the same way for another person. For example, during that period when my hostel experienced drought, a lot of people got skin infections just from bathing with the well water. One of my hostel mates got terribly sick and was admitted to the hospital for days because he drank from the well. The same well other people drank from and nothing happened.

One important thing you need to know is to study your body and know what works well for you. I don’t get affected by water. Don’t quote me wrong, I don’t go around drinking bad water, saying “I’m Superman. I can drink any kind of water.” I have noticed that I don’t get affected by water in the same way as others. I don’t think I’ve ever got an infection from water. On the other hand, one of my coursemates drinks only bottled water. The one time her friend gave her another type of water, she fell terribly sick.

I’m not a medical practitioner, but one tip I can offer to make people take care of their health is to study yourself, and know what works for you and your body system. Take care of yourself and find what keeps you healthy.