Where saving water is key to survival

If you leave the tap running as you brush your teeth in the morning, you probably waste more than half of the water a peacekeeper in Mali’s Kidal gets to use in a day.   

Deep in the Sahara, water is extremely precious as natural sources are scarce. The UN peacekeepers have their buckets labelled with their names to keep others from using their water.

They queue up early in the morning to collect water at a designated point.

“The officers and soldiers get the same amount of water,” Lt Col Ahmed Sharrif Manee, contingent commander of BANENGR-6 of Kidal Super Camp, told The Daily Star.

Situated in the deep interior of Mali and hundreds of miles away from the capital Bamako, water is a luxury in Kidal.

Each peacekeeper gets six litres of drinking water and another 10 litres for bathing, washing clothes, toilets and everything else.

“Water is the most precious thing here. We have to do everything with the allotted amount,” Major Imtiaz Zaman told The Daily Star.

Peacekeepers cannot even dream of taking a proper shower in Kidal, he said.

“I keep my dirty laundry under my feet when I bathe. As the clothes get soaked and I can wash them with less water.”

Some soldiers step into their bucket so that when they bathe, the water is collected in the bucket and can be used later.

The key to survival in the desert is to know how to save water, the peacekeepers said.

There are taps inside the washrooms and kitchens but not a single one works. There is no running water in Kidal.

With very poor ground water availability, water usage is never a mindless act here. “You make a conscious decision every time you use water,” said soldier Khandaker Muhammad Zakir Hossain.

They also conserve rainwater during monsoon and treat waste water for reuse. Rainwater is used for human consumption and treated wastewater for gardening and other chores.

The water trucks are usually heavily guarded.

“It is difficult to do everything with this little water. But, when we think of the people of Mali, we feel that we are far better off,” said soldier Atikur Rahman.

Sergeant Abdul Kaium said, “We have accepted this. We are here on a special mission. Whenever we think of the water crisis, we remind ourselves of the reason why we are here and motivate ourselves.”

With the average temperature of around a scorching 50-degrees Celsius, the soldiers frequently suffer from dehydration and nosebleeds.

The desert sand is so dry that water drops disappear in the blink of an eye.