Water Conservation in the Savanna

While a Peace Corps volunteer in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I had the opportunity to travel widely. I learned to appreciate the geographical, political, and cultural contrasts in that huge nation, the third largest on the African continent.

Although the Congo is known for rainforest in the center "basin," the north, east, and, especially south, has large stretches of scrub land and savanna, where water is scarce. In such a landscape the villages are few and far between. Here, the people are linked to the nearest permanent water, which might be a sweaty, hot, one-hour trek. In these places, bathing and washing clothes was done at the "source" while drinking and cooking water had to be hauled back to the huts. Water was transported in pots, pails, pans, and gourds, carried on women's (and girl's) heads. .

Water was so precious that I once stopped to take a picture of an ingenious method used for a thatched roof in the southern Bandundu region of the Congo. The thirsty people had fashioned a sort of gutter with split giant bamboo. A leaf spout connected it to a gourd. One also notices the use of bamboo and grass instead of the wood and clay from the wet regions to the north.

Photo by D. Messinger