A walk around Laporiya

Celia, another VSO Volunteer came to visit me in Laporiya this weekend and this morning we did something I've rarely done before- we went for a walk around the village.

Here are some of the sights we saw on the way...

The problem with water

I have a faint memory of living in a country where I turned the tap on and water came out, where I had baths, used washing machines and we complained about the regular rain.

For the last few days I've been living in Jaipur, where the availability of water is very different. In my family's house there, water only comes out of the taps from 5am until 6.45am. Most of the household wake up for 5, armed with buckets and water pots. Two doors down is GVNML's accounts office, so a long hose is used to link the office tap to the water storage tanks in the family home. Next door is a small temple and this tap is also used for filling the buckets of various residents of the street.
There are on average 10 people living in the Jaipur family home at any one time, usually a combination of children attending school in Jaipur, and mothers or fathers looking after them or in the city for business meetings. It's estimated that it takes 1,000 litres of water to run the house, for washing bodies, clothes and kitchen pots, for cooking and for drinking, and most importantly, for using in the coolers that make the soaring temperatures bearable. Even with the extra supply of water from the office and the temple, what comes through the tap usually isn't enough.

Three months ago the taps ran for two hours each morning and evening, but since the water cuts a government water aid tanker has been coming to this street every afternoon. At around 3pm the children stand ready to refill their buckets then sign the government slip as evidence the tanker has stopped at their house.

There are areas of Jaipur worse hit than ours. The Times of India recently reported that certain parts of the city are having their daily water supply cut by 10 minutes. "The measures were taken to tide over the crisis facing the city and stretch the resources considering the delay of the monsoon in the state." 100 protesters mobbed the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), fighting against the erratic water supply and demanding more tankers. One protester said, "We have not been getting a proper water supply for the last 15 days and when we ask for water tankers the officials are evasive. They do not listen to us."

The problem is that Jaipur has no water supply of its own. Water comes from the Bisalpur Dam which was originally large enough to supply eight districts in Rajasthan, but now it's drying up fast. My sister told me that in 2 weeks the dam will be empty. Again, the Times of India reported "Expected to give 400 MLD (millions of litre per day) of water, the government is now fighting tooth and nail to draw even 20 MLD per day". PHED officials said, "At best it is only for 10 days more that we can supply water from here. After that Jaipur will have to be totally dependent on ground water and this project will have to wait for the rain god's mercy."

After years of exploiting groundwater in Jaipur, there isn't much left to draw from wells or bore holes. Last Tuesday The Hindu newspaper announced a 40 crore (£5.6m) emergency plan led by The Government of Rajasthan's Water Resources Department to supply water to Jaipur and Ajmer districts until the end of July in an attempt to maintain normal levels of water supply. Senior officials and engineers said, "The delay in monsoon rains had made the water supply situation very critical in the State, which was already grappling with paucity of water." Drinking water will be brought on trains from Kota, in Western Rajasthan.

As the BBC weather forecast promises daily rain, we are still waiting for the downpours that will save this city from dehydration. I am lucky, on Sunday I will return to Laporiya where we've got our own well, with enough water it in to not worry about washing twice a day, and scrubbing clothes clean.

Three things that made me smile today

I wasn't in the best mood today- the electricity has been going off at 3am each night so I wake up boiling hot and move outside to the day bed at 3 in the morning and start the day exhausted, it didn't come on today until the afternoon so the pump wasn't working and therefore no water and to top it off I'm not feeling well, with a sore throat and ironically a cold.

There were a few things that made me smile today though. One of my coping strategies is to think of a day as a success if I achieve one thing, have one good conversation or experience one interesting/enlightening/amusing situation. The great thing is that days are often filled with many of these moments.

So here's what happened today:

1) This morning one of our buffalos gave birth. I saw the baby when it was a couple of hours old, exhausted, curled up and being licked by its mother who still had the water bag hanging out of her. Raju, who looks after the animals, and his co-workers were worried. It was a hot day and they needed to keep the calf cool, as well as show it how to take milk. They even gave it a hemp grain bag to lie on in the shade. They also milked the mother, apparently the first milking after giving birth is very strong milk, presumably full of goodness for the baby. No one drinks it straight but instead make nourishing lassis from it (making curd from the milk, then mixing with cool water and sugar for a refreshing drink). I'm told buffalo milk is strong anyway, and I look forward to trying it. Mama said she will teach her daughter Ganoo and I how to milk the buffalo, something I'm keen on doing as I can't do it regulary in England!

2) We were running dangerously low on water because of the pump situation, even the two huge water storage tanks we kept for emergencies were almost empty and we weren't sure when the power would come back on. All us children took every bucket, mudkey (clay water pot) and bottle we could find down to the village hand pump just outside the boundary of our house, much to the amusement of the villagers. You see, we have an electric pump, but in times like this they were the winners and could still draw water without the need for electricity. After waiting our turn, I filled my mudkey, working my biceps and attempted to carry it home resting on my shoulder. Unfortunatley I haven't quite mastered the art of carrying it and at this comparitively long distance lost about a litre down my kurta, causing much giggling from the village women who were encouraging me to put it on my head like they did. Well I made it home carrying the pot in my arms and feeling like I'd had my hand pump initiation.

3) I would have to rate Battleships as one of my top 5 games and coincidentally have it with me in India, although being the only foreigner in a family who can't speak much english I haven't had a chance to play many of the games I brought with me. With no power we were all sat in Grandma's cool bedroom with its two foot thick walls, and I thought I'd teach my cousin and brother how to play. After much explanation we were almost playing to the actual rules although i suspected some peeking over or some very lucky guesses! Then the power came on and they rushed to the TV.

Photos: Raju pushing his daughter Sumi next to the calf for our photo shoot; Practising how to carry the mudkey on my head later on in the evening; Pratap and Kanoo concentrating on their next battleship moves.