Botswana is HOT and DRY

Ten pictures that illustrate Botswana is HOT and DRY

For the past three years, we, the nation of Botswana, have been getting less and less rain fall. This year RIGHT NOW the hair is breaking the camel's back so to speak... everything is falling apart!

In the past years of drought, we still had some reserves in our dams even with no rain, OR we got some from South African dams, OR we piped it in from the North. Somehow we didn't feel it so badly. We watched the news and saw the weather report telling us we were experiencing a drought but water still flowed from the tap... MOST of the time. Of course we didn't have water 2 or 3 days a week from 8:00 a.m.-4:00 pm. but we coped and besides many people were away at work and never felt the weekly water cuts.

BUT NOW... NOW we are all FEELING it! 

a) Water cuts are now are 4 days a week... 8:00 a.m -4:00 pm. NO WATER. For me, that means no water on Mondays, Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays. Honestly, this is not even a problem any more. I have adapted after weekly water cuts for the past two years and I am a stay at home mom with messy little kids who need many hand washings and messes cleaned up throughout the day.

b) South Africa has cut us off from using their dam!

c) The reserves in the dams ... they are GONE GONE GONE!

d) The pipeline to our capital city that brings 145 million liters of water from as far as 10 hours away EVERY day ... it is starting to fail. So, NOW, in addition to the normal water cuts we get DAYS without water. A few weeks ago, the city went without water for 3.5 days as they fixed a section of that pipe. This coming week, we are advised that it will probably take SIX days to fix the newest problem with that pipe.

WE are told many more of these "maintenance cuts" will occur as that pipeline continues to take the strain of carrying millions of liters of water for such long distances on a daily basis.

For my American friends who say "oh, I understand! We also need rain! It hasn't rained all month!" I am not talking about a drought like that! It did rain a few weeks ago. Besides that ONE rain in September, the last rain was in Feburary. I think THIS YEAR, rain has fallen from the sky about 10 times. That might be OVER estimating actually!

I thought I would dedicate this post to trying to show visuals that help those not living here to understand just how bad things are here.

Here is a huge billboard downtown where our government is encouraging us not to flush out toilets too often to save our valuable water resource.  If you can't see it clearly, it says "IF ITS YELLOW, LET IT MELLOW. IF ITS BROWN, FLUSH IT DOWN."

This is our capital city DAM! Percy and I both remember walking on top of the rocks and looking down into the dam (what you see in the picture) and that was FULL of water!!! Now, there is a million dollar infrastructure and a bunch of dirt! It is DRY and useless now!

On a recent hike to a hill that overlooks the dam, I took this photo. All the yellowish brown area USED TO BE UNDER WATER!!! We used to have a HUGE beautiful dam. Now, apart from a diminishing little puddle in the middle, it is all dirt! SO SAD!

This is a picture I took last weekend a couple of hours north of Gaborone, the capital city. A few years ago, this was a river, flowing with water. As you can see, now, it is totally dry... more dried up dirt.

When our water is either pumped from sources 5-10 hours away OR taken from mud pits which used to be dams, this is what it comes out of the tap looking like! The government advises us to filter and boil it for our safety now.


A PUBLIC NOTICE from our government water company:

When we get notices like the above that say they can cut our water at any given time, we keep some water bottles filled at all times. Most homes in Botswana have some form of this stock piled "emergency water". It is a necessity in our drought. This is my stash.

YEP!! That is a COW behind them munching my neighbor's grass! Our drought is so bad that almost every day we find cows or horses let loose by their owners to roam the capital streets in search of any food or water to keep them alive!! (NOT cool for traffic jams and car accidents when they unexpectedly step into the road)


NOW, to compound the problem of lack of water comes the life sucking high temperatures that make you just want to drink water all day or live in a cold shower..
.... if only we had the water to do so....

This picture was taken INSIDE MY BEDROOM a couple of days ago!!!! That is my bed in the background! Can you even begin to imagine sleeping in that heat?!?!?! TORTURE!! OH, and I forgot to mention twice last week we had NO POWER/ELECTRICITY all night so I couldn't even turn on a fan in those ALMOST 100 DEGREE TEMPERATURES!!!

In case you are asking yourself, I wonder what it is like to live in 90 degree PLUS temperatures for 6 months of the year. Let me show you exhibit A! These were lifetime guarantee L.L. Bean hiking boots. THEY MELTED IN MY CLOSET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EXHIBIT B

                  

After asking the dean at the College of Agriculture what was going on with my plants, he quickly replied, "That is sun scorch. The sun is so hot here that it literally fries the leaves!"

PLEASE PRAY FOR RAIN FOR BOTSWANA

I firmly believe that God created the world, which means as Creator, He can intervene with the clouds and do the impossible. He can open the floodgates of heaven and let it rain!!

Severe droughts are not a new phenomenon. The Bible tells us a solution in 2 Chronicles 7:14. The Lord tells us that if we pray, humble ourselves and turn from our wicked ways, HE WILL HEAR FROM HEAVEN AND HEAL OUR LAND.

Upon telling a friend this promise, she quickly said, "Why is it conditional? Why can't He just always provide us with our needs? Why must we suffer like we are?"

I gave her an example of a loving parent who wants the best for their child, but they end up on the streets as a drug addict. The child calls home begging for more money to fund her "needs". The parent says "come back home (humble yourself), stop doing drugs (turn from your wickedness) and I will provide for your needs as your loving parent. The parent does this because the parent can see that what the child THINKS is best is actually destroying her and the child needs guidance and protection.

I believe God loves us. I believe God wants the best for us. I do not believe He makes us suffer. However, I believe sometimes He allows it so that we HAVE to turn to Him, so that we don't take for granted His good gifts and ultimately know where the provisions come from. By knowing who actually provides for us, we depend on Him instead of ourselves. By turning to him with life's problems, we also turn to Him for guidance on daily decisions. In turn, He leads us to better life choices and a more abundant life. That is what a good loving Father does.