My friend had one of her students ask her: "Is it true that in America you can drink the water out of any sink? The bathroom too?" She thought for a moment and told the class that yes, you can drink the water out of any sink in the house and you "you can even drink out of the hose!" Amazed, the students started to ask more questions. "How?" "Why is the water safe?" She even told them that there is this nutrient called Fluoride "and it is put in our water just because it is good for you and your teeth." Mouths dropped to the floor. When she told me this it made me think just how utopic America sounds and how dystopic India must sound to Americans, especially when it comes to water.
We have had two friends get quite ill from drinking the "bad" water. They both had Giardia that affected them for many weeks on and off. In each staff home there is a water purifier that you turn on and get your water from. If you do not have a water purifier, you get your water from one of the pumps in town and boil it.
With all the trash, oil, grease, dumped onto the hillside and all the wild animals and people who use the hillside as their bathroom you can imagine what this does to the watershed. We are lucky to be near the top of the rivers and higher up on the watershed. Living in the mountains does provide you this small luxury. I have heard horror stories (that would keep you up at night) about the rivers in south India and how the water looks coming out of the tap. Since you may be eating while reading this, I will spare you the gruesome details.
We are hyper cautious about Oliver and the water. We boil a pot of purified water for his bath and then add cool pitchers of purified water until the temperature is right. He splashes, plays with his toys and often tries to drink the water. We can't take the chance he might ingest some non-purified water. We don't wipe is face or hands with anything but purified water either; everything still goes right into his mouth so no "bad" water on his hands. We can wash dishes with non-purified water but then we rinse everything with the purified. We always check to make sure our dishes are dry when we eat at a restaurant.
If you are eating at an unfamiliar restaurant (typically, we get recommendations from friends but this is not always possible if you are eating in a different town), you order a bottle of water because you don't want to risk that they might not serve purified. We have even asked waiters to take our bottle and brew our tea with it because if they don't get the "bad" water to the actual boiling point it will make you sick.
I have a hunch that Oliver and I got so sick on our fifth day here because we got a little "bad" water into our systems somehow. I was still brain dead and feeling quite upside down and was probably, unknowingly, not being as careful as I should have been.
When I get back to the states the first thing I am going to do is serve myself a nice tall glass of fluoride-enhanced water...straight from the hose. And drink it with confidence.
p.s. My Dad prescribed Oliver fluoride drops so he gets some in his sippy cup everyday.
We have had two friends get quite ill from drinking the "bad" water. They both had Giardia that affected them for many weeks on and off. In each staff home there is a water purifier that you turn on and get your water from. If you do not have a water purifier, you get your water from one of the pumps in town and boil it.
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| Kids collecting water in town |
With all the trash, oil, grease, dumped onto the hillside and all the wild animals and people who use the hillside as their bathroom you can imagine what this does to the watershed. We are lucky to be near the top of the rivers and higher up on the watershed. Living in the mountains does provide you this small luxury. I have heard horror stories (that would keep you up at night) about the rivers in south India and how the water looks coming out of the tap. Since you may be eating while reading this, I will spare you the gruesome details.
We are hyper cautious about Oliver and the water. We boil a pot of purified water for his bath and then add cool pitchers of purified water until the temperature is right. He splashes, plays with his toys and often tries to drink the water. We can't take the chance he might ingest some non-purified water. We don't wipe is face or hands with anything but purified water either; everything still goes right into his mouth so no "bad" water on his hands. We can wash dishes with non-purified water but then we rinse everything with the purified. We always check to make sure our dishes are dry when we eat at a restaurant.
If you are eating at an unfamiliar restaurant (typically, we get recommendations from friends but this is not always possible if you are eating in a different town), you order a bottle of water because you don't want to risk that they might not serve purified. We have even asked waiters to take our bottle and brew our tea with it because if they don't get the "bad" water to the actual boiling point it will make you sick.
I have a hunch that Oliver and I got so sick on our fifth day here because we got a little "bad" water into our systems somehow. I was still brain dead and feeling quite upside down and was probably, unknowingly, not being as careful as I should have been.
When I get back to the states the first thing I am going to do is serve myself a nice tall glass of fluoride-enhanced water...straight from the hose. And drink it with confidence.
p.s. My Dad prescribed Oliver fluoride drops so he gets some in his sippy cup everyday.
There are a lot of criticism about our water in America -but you are so right about how lucky we are to have a system that works so well. Did you know that Grand Rapids was the first city in the USA to fluoridate its water? (make what you will of that) When I get our public water report in the mail this year, maybe I'll actually read it and think of you in India. :)
ReplyDeleteUnless you happen to live in an area where mountaintop fracking is common, then yes, we are very very lucky to have the water we do in the states. Maybe I should read my public water report next time too.
ReplyDeletedon't forget about checking to make sure your "new" bottle of water hasn't been filled and then sort of melted shut. I still remember the shower caps at the Centuar hotel in Delhi--the caps had been used (I assume), then put back in the single-use bag and melted very conspicuously!
ReplyDelete