Hotel Pakistan (Part 2)

Readers please forgive my absence from this blog. I have had a very busy, Internet-free couple of weeks. But I would like to continue right where I left off. Last time we talked about the fun side of visiting the Indian/Pakistani border. I would now like to share with you some of the work that I did while I was there.

The first and highest priority village I went to was Sonalnagar which is currently finishing all of its bio-gas plants. If you are not familiar with bio-gas plants they are concrete structures that enable the user to utilize their own resources for cooking. These natural resources are mainly cow and buffalo feces, and considering many people in the Kutch district are involved with animal husbandry there is no short supply of fuel. This cost effective method saves the average user about half of their monthly income that would have been spent on alternative fuels and fertilizers. It also saves countless hours as the villagers no longer have to search for fuel and can spend their day working and generating more income for their families.

In addition to cooking needs there are very serious water needs. The villages of Guher, Sagunguna, Haji-Bhachudiwandh, Kapurashi, and Khengarpar all need water for various reasons but they all boil down to the same thing. Life. I have always been told that water is the essential element to life. But I was told that in an environment where I could go to the faucet, play in the rain, and even drink from some rivers and creeks. This is certainly not the case here and in Social Change last semester, Professor Jehan Raheem told us that one of the next major resource wars will be for water (Canada has the lion's share when it comes to water) and being here it is easy to see why. The people here are dependant on water for their livelihood and their lives and have not even a fraction of the access that we in developed nations have to this precious resource.

When I return home to Arkansas I plan to float the beautiful and majestic Buffalo River. However this time I will not take it for granted and I will certainly be thinking of those in Kutch who do not have this basic life necessity.