A dry vacation

31st of December 2007,

It has been two days since we haven’t had any water from the tap. All these two days we have been using the water that we had stored in a drum in anticipation of the situation like the one that we are facing at present. As a write this blog, the only feeling that is occurring in my mind is “what the hell am I gonna do when I return to my room this evening as I have already exhausted the last of my reserves of water?” I am gonna bid my adieu to this year 2007 with empty buckets, a unique way of doing so, isn’t it?

I live in a rented room in the center of Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, with my sister. I share my room, which is on the 2nd floor, with three other tenants each occupying one room. Our landlord sits on the 1st floor with his family of four and his mother, along with her unmarried daughter, lives on the 3rd floor. The ground floor is occupied by a couple and an office of an NGO. Our room faces the street, has a balcony and receives all day long of sunshine in a place like this where the temperature falls to around zero. Except these the room is in no way better than a hell. The bathroom is filthy and so is the condition of the toilet, not to mention that it is on the ground floor. So every time we suffer from stomach disorder we have a wonderful time running all the way to the ground floor catching the pants.

Water has always been a problem in Kathmandu. With the people coming here from all over the country, the population is growing at an unprecedented rate and so is the pressure on the water supply. The “drinking water supply corporation” which is responsible for the water supply to the town is able to do so only for about 1 hour every other day in the monsoons, when the water is abundant. So it is quite understandable when it provides only 15 minutes of water supply every other day (if we are fortunate) or as mostly is the case every 4 days. This was the case two days ago, so the landlord kept the water for himself and happily announced that there will be no water supply for 4 days for the tenants. Hence this blog-post. So we are left to consider between whether we are to give a pleasant visits to one of our relatives or go to a restaurant. So I will not forget this new year .