Thread by @EricHolthaus

As world leaders prepare to debate our collective futures at #cop26 in Scotland, I’m proud to publish this personal essay from @ChimikaCha in Chongwe, Zambia.

Water is a fundamental human right. This is what inequality and climate change looks like.

thephoenix.earth/the-chongwe-wa…

@ChimikaCha Southern Zambia, like many places on the frontlines of the climate emergency, has struggled with increasingly erratic rainfall in recent years.

That’s increased the gap between the haves and have-nots down to the neighborhood level in places like Chongwe.

Fiske Nyirongo’s investigated the local scale as water divides her community. "Is there resentment brewing silently between the two groups? Will this town be used one day as an example of what happens when more pronounced inequalities due to climate change are not handled early?"

Fiske recalls the day she moved to Chongwe:

"When we opened the taps that evening, we thought something had died in the pipes due to the brown color and pungent smell of the water. Days later, our neighbors told us that this was the quality of water everyone got."

During the dry season, there used to be tankers run by the fire department that would distribute water. Eventually, as the droughts grew more severe, the tankers stopped coming.

Fiske found the government had abandoned its own people, whether by choice or by lack of funds, and left them to collect water themselves. Those who could afford to drilled wells. Some profited off their neighbors’ misfortune. Everyone else drank dirty water.

Fiske spoke with one well owners who decided to sell their water, on condition of anonymity. "He said that his family initially started allowing people to draw water for free from their borehole but noticed that their pump needed frequent repairs as people increased in number."

“We did not have the money for it,” he said.

The family sat down and decided to start charging people 2 Kwacha [9 cents USD] at first for every 20-litre container and increased the price to 4 Kwacha [18 cents USD] last December.

On Friday, September 30, 2016, the Zambian Daily Nation newspaper reported that Chongwe had finally ran out of water. The Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company shut down the water treatment plant as soon as the Chongwe River was dry.

"The Zambian government should be explaining what is happening to the people they serve. For example, I first heard that our water pipes had holes in them from a fellow resident. We did not know what was going on and why the water quality was still poor,” Fiske writes.

An important update to this story: Earlier today (Oct 29), the newly elected Zambian government, led by President Hakainde Hichilema, has announced that the national government will no longer charge a fee for borehole water well drilling for domestic use.

There's hope that this could at least temporarily increase access to clean water in places like Chongwe, and reduce inequality over the right to this fundamental life-giving resource.

Special thanks to @ChimikaCha for reporting this important story about your home.

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