MY BAD WATER CHRONICLES

When I just moved into my current apartment, I was so happy with the clean environment and security, but then I noticed there was something unique with my neighbors including the landlord who has the biggest apartment in the compound. It was that they all drank tap water. I decided to ask out of curiosity and I was told that the landlord treats the water making it very drinkable. The knowledge of this gave me so much joy that I started drinking the tap water like everyone else… After two years of staying in the compound, I realized I was the only one drinking the tap water, and it wasn't long after I became very sick. So sick that those around me were scared as it was the first time I had fallen sick in six years.

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I was rushed to the hospital and a test was conducted showing I had a very high level of typhoid in my body system. I was so sure I had malaria because I had been dealing a lot with mosquitoes in the past months and hadn't taken my supplements as usual. I then began to wonder how on earth I had typhoid until I went back home and wanted to use tap water to take my meds when I paused for a while to observe what I was about to take in. It was then I realized there were particles in the water which obviously was the only reason I fell ill. That was when I stopped drinking the tap water and some months later I discovered the tank hadn't been washed in the two years of my stay because my landlord was not always around to ensure it was so and his wife couldn't care less about it.

I moved to drinking sachet water which I would buy in a bag, there are usually 20 in one bag which should take me a week. However I noticed it's not all the sachet water products have pure water, some even have a taste and some have an odor which I would presume it's from the retailer of the product. However, I try as much as possible to avoid those kinds of water and as of now only from a trusted retailer. I have two retailers just so I don't get stranded when I need to get water. And if for any reason I get stranded I would fetch tap water, boil it really well and allow it to cool down before I drink. I do this once in a while though else I just go for my sachet of water.

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Bottle water is pretty expensive and right now I'm not ready to spend it week in and week out, but I plan on getting a water dispenser so I can always fetch industrially clean water from a company close to my place. They treat their water to the highest standard because of their staff and give the community I live in access to the water. Last month, my sister and I fell sick and we were both diagnosed with typhoid. I began to wonder how come again until I realized that even bathing and cooking with tap water at home has become bad for our health, but since getting tap water has become expensive there is little we can do.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE LEARNER'S PROMPT FOR WEEK 112 EPISODE 1