Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Thursday was our first water day in a while. We attempted to monitor everyone’s water usage over a 24 hour period. We each had to tally what we used in a 24 hour period for drinking, washing up and bathing. As you know, water is a critical issue in any small island community where there are no natural springs, and now that we are officially in our dry season, it would be really handy if we could approximate the amount of water we need daily per person. How much do you think is needed? Our results showed us that 24 of us used almost 150 liters in 24 hours, that is about 6.2 liters per person.

Of the 149 liters consumed by the 24 tribe members…
We used only 8 for bathing (phew!)
We used 31 liters in the kitchen
We drank 62 liters and
We used a whopping 48 liters for grog!

Shows where our priorities lie hey!

We had a great water forum in the afternoon and some tribe members shared a few interesting statistics during the day such as…

In the USA, the average citizen consumes 200litres of water per day whereas in Kenya, the average citizen uses only 4 liters per day. So we’re not as good as the Kenyans yet, but we’re not too far off! If we banned grog on the island we’d be just as good, but don’t tell anyone I said that or I’ll be banished from the Lambchop Society!

How do western folks use up so much water? Here on Vorovoro, we sidestepped a major need for water by constructing the zero-wet-flush composting toilets.

I also encouraged those of us on the island to drink green coconuts (a replacement rehydration fluid) since they are so abundant and even healthier than plain water.

Another statistic thrown in was that in a place where there is a rainfall of 750-1000ml per annum and it is desired to live off whatever runoff can be captured off a roof; about 500 sq.ft of roof catchment is needed per person. So for Vorovoro, with an average population of about 15, we need about 7,500 sq.ft of roofing, plus adequate storage. Most tribe members agreed that it would be more efficient to concentrate on capturing excess water during the wet season and store it rather than spend money on developing new technologies and infrastructure to “make” water continuously throughout the year. We decided against sending Jone to Antarctica to tow us back an iceberg, and we couldn’t find any plastic bags big enough in Labasa to wrap over the breadfruit trees to capture transpiration(besides I’ve learned that plastic bags are banned on Vorovoro).

Water should where possible be used at least twice. Here we capture grey water from the showers and pass it through the grog bowl SORRY I MEANT TO SAY A REED BED then use the effluent to water gardens. Clinton remembered seeing toilets in Japan where the toilet cistern doubles as a hand basin so that the same water used to wash ones hands is retained and used in the next flush.

Nora commented how inspired she was by how much of our daily water needs could be met using salt water instead of fresh such as for washing hands and dishes. Jenny washes all her family’s clothes in salty water and claimed there are no adverse side effects. I myself was amazed when I first came here that everyone bathed in the sea most of the time. To have this many westerners enjoying life without much fresh water without complaint is a true marvel, and is probably one of our biggest success stories.

I leave you now with one of the earliest recorded idioms from Vorovoro to reflect upon…

REAL MEN WEE IN THE SEA!
Does this mean that landlocked Zimbabweans like me are not real men? I’m happy to report that over the years there were various spelling errors in the translation and the meaning was lost. The idiom should read as…

REAL MEN WEE ON A TREE!

So keep those trees standing!

Later!

Chuck