VOA标准英语2012--Residents of Nairobi Slums Face Daily Water Challenges

Residents of Nairobi Slums Face Daily Water Challenges

When the water tap threatens to run dry in this Nairobi slum, tensions rise.

Women, waiting for their turn to fill their 20-liter containers of water, fight as they fear not being able to fill hers, one woman jumps the line, and chaos¹ ensues. 

They’re fighting over the most essential resource of life, water, something this slum has little of.

Everyone here is looking for a clean tap. 

In another Nairobi slum - Kibera -Peter Njeru owns one of those taps. It is a lifeline for residents. “Once somebody does not have water, you cannot cook, you can not wash, you can not do anything without water. Water is life,” he said.

With a severe drought recently affecting the country, water shortages are on the rise. Peter gets his water from international NGO’s. He charges the equivalent of four U.S. cents to fill a 20-liter container, but when his water runs low, he’s forced to charge more.

People living here can spend nearly 30 percent of their monthly income on water alone. So when prices rise, they often go the cheaper route, to local pipes. 

“The local pipes, they usually use the plastic pipes, and when they normally use the plastic pipes, they get damaged,” Njeru explained.

And when they’re damaged, dirty sewage seeps² into the water. Residents who drink from those pipes are at risk of diarrhea, typhoid or even cholera³. 

“It’s dangerous, it’s easier to get disease from pipes which are normally broken pipes,” Njeru added.

One local youth football team bought its own pipes, and built its own tap. That way, members can watch their water, make sure it’s clean, and help supply their neighbors.

"We decided⁴ to bring this water here so that we can help the local residents," Team chairman John Mang said. "Because there are shortage of water, and to sell to them at a cheaper price. The youths here saw that they had nothing to do, so they decided they can gather themselves, then they started project, and it can give them a source of income."

While small projects like this one have been beneficial, the water crisis in Kenya is far from solved. 

Dan Mogusu from the Kenyan Ministry⁵ of Water and Irrigation hopes that World Water Day will bring the issue to light.

“If you look at the international slogan, it’s water and food security, and that is very key, because in this horn of Africa, we’ve been having droughts, and we’ve been having hunger. So we really need to come out and address the issue of food, and without water, we cannot address the issue of food,” he said.

The government wants to begin harvesting rain water, storing it for re-use. 

It will be demonstrating water harvesting in the drought-affected regions of northern Kenya, but back in the city slums, there is no harvest, and the struggle for water continues. 

1 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

2 seeps   

n.（液体）渗( seep的名词复数 )；渗透；渗出；漏出v.（液体）渗( seep的第三人称单数 )；渗透；渗出；漏出

参考例句：

• Water seeps through sand. 水渗入沙中。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Water seeps out of the wall. 水从墙里沁出。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 cholera   

n.霍乱

参考例句：

• The cholera outbreak has been contained.霍乱的发生已被控制住了。
• Cholera spread like wildfire through the camps.霍乱在营地里迅速传播。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。