By Julien Niyingabira Mahoro
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| Sometimes, water from underground sources look cleaner than it really is |
“In the nature, nothing gets lost,” said Antoine Lavoisier a French Philosopher. This, at this time, means for me that disposal of waste or other natural polluants should be done with as high efficiency as possible.
Rwanda is a quite rich country in water ressources. Different villages use water directly from underground sources. But again people from those villages use pitholes as latrines.
I don’t like to sound rude but I think I would not be far from the truth if I said that latrines systems in villages of my country bring people to drink directly from their waste!
Health authorities stated that majority of people going to health centers are suffering from diseases caused by drinking unclean water: diarrhoea among others. They also said that children mortality rate should be considerably reduced if people don’t drink unclean water.
People from those villages still use latrines. They are not aware of how this behavior is a threat to the water they use. That’s why they keep poisoning themselves.
The government of Rwanda, with different partners likePSI, is distributing chemicals to purify water, which is one of the solutions. But this looks like taking an aspirin tablet to calm one’s headache instead of taking medical tests in order to find the real reason of the headache and treat it.
People should be educated and explained about phenomena that occur when they dig toilets and drink directly water from underground sources.