 At
first, drinking the tap water is not advisable—as the water does not
go through the same purification process as in the U.S., diarrhoea can
occur in Americans who have not yet built up immunity to bacteria or
other dirtiness in the water. It is best to buy bottled water (see
below) or to boil tap water for at least twenty minutes to make the
water suitable for consumption. After about two months, you probably
can safely start drinking the water, in small amounts at first, as
most likely your body has adjusted through exposure to the water while
brushing teeth, showering, and eating foods cooked with water not
fully boiled. However, to limit health risks, never drink water from
anything but the tap or covered cement wells.
The cheapest safe water option is to buy 500 ml pouches of
Naturelle water. (Naturelle is a water purification and bottling
company located in Kanifing.) You can buy these pouches
individually from most local shops for about $0.07. If you are
buying in bulk, some local shops sell cases of thirty pouches
for about $1.25—a fantastic deal, considering 1.5 litre bottles
of the same stuff individually cost between $1.10 and $1.80. If
you do buy bottles, never throw them away—to Gambians, empty
bottles are prized commodities for storing water, palm oil, palm
wine, and other liquids.
If you get tired of drinking plain water all of the time, you
can buy small packets of power drink mix from local shops or the
supermarkets for about $0.25 to $0.90. One popular brand is
Foster Clarks, which comes in a variety of flavours, including
orange, strawberry, mango, pineapple, mixed berry, cola, et al.
Local shops usually will have only two or three flavours—go to
supermarkets for the whole gamut.
If you want water and want to say it in Wolof then the word
for water is "Ndohh".
|
Water Supply:
The water supply already at present is a major
problem of the whole area, the level of the ground water is
constantly sinking and there have been water shortages since
several years. This mainly is due to enormous use of water for
Tourism facility. In the Senegambia Hotel, in 1986, the water
consumption per bed amounted to 500 litres a day.
The situation will only be improved by drilling new bore holes
and constructing more over head water tank at Kotu South. But
again, this may not be realized in the immediate future.
Therefore, considering the present water supply and ecological
implications, all allocated and future projects have to be
carefully and critically scrutinised before they are approved or
implemented.
|
|
