You can tell there are water issues in Nyandarua by the investment that goes into water tanks. After the “J.M. water” stopped flowing, (Maai ma J.M – that is how the locals fondly refer to the piped water of the 1970s), families that could afford, invested in galvanized water tanks to harvest rain water. These tanks varied in size, but the most common, I guess the more affordable one was the 8000 liter tank. The tanks were not cheap, that is why not everybody had one.
The main purpose for the water collected in those tanks was for drinking and cooking, especially in the dreaded dry season, starting in December and lasting to end of March. Life was easy during the rainy season. The tank was full and more rain was still falling. Like other families, we used our tank water for everything. Drinking, Cooking, cleaning, bathing, even doing laundry. The clothes looked and smelled good after washing them in that sparkling clean water from the tank.
As the rains wound down, my mother constantly knocked on the tank to check the level of the water. A knock from the top, the empty ridges sounded hollow. Like a scientist working for the NASA Space Program, she knocked her way down the ridges as she listened intently, and five ridges down, BOOM, her knock was met with a dull sound. She had hit the water level.
And with that, she came back with a padlock and locked the tap to limit access to the water unless authorized by her. The water in the tank had to last until the long rains came in early April. She made sure of that. So, we were only allowed to fetch water for drinking and cooking. Period. For cleaning, bathing and laundry, we had to fetch water from the local dam.
