Author: Kasichana Mumba

We never, ever, thought that this is how it would end. In fact, we didn’t even stop to contemplate the gravity of the situation. When you got home, you were tired. So, so tired. But we chalked it up to fatigue and probably the flu. Besides, the school had taken you to hospital and they said the report came back with a diagnosis. Pneumonia. Typhoid. Something like that. I can’t remember. I don’t want to remember. This is how it spiraled out of control. One hospital visit and we got a medical report that none of us wanted to believe.…

Whenever I think of clean water, I think of the fancy kind –  the ones sparkling in plastic bottles with bubbles that make it look like the water is breathing. You must have seen them being advertised on TV with drops of condensation dripping off, almost glamourously, many times making me wonder whether the bottle is weeping or sweating. They always say something like ‘contains essential minerals’ or ‘bottled at the source’. Those ads make me thirsty. For as long as I could remember, whenever the house required ‘nice, clean’ water for the guests or the relatives who’d just landed…