Why do Africans walk miles to the nearest well every day?

Question

I saw a charity advert on TV asking for donations towards Africans who send their boy to walk 10 miles every day to the nearest well so they can have fresh drinking water.

It showed their house which was a tiny mud hut, then it showed the well which was out in the middle of nowhere. The advert was asking for donations towards building a new well closer to their home.

Now I'm no genius, but firstly; why build a well in the middle of nowhere in the first place?

Secondly, instead of walking 10 miles to the well every day, why not just move to the well that's already there? It's easy enough to build a new mud hut and this would provide a simple, low cost yet highly effective solution to the problem.

Does anyone else agree that it would be better for everyone if they just move to the well? I would even donate to the charity if it was to go towards helping them move.

Answer 1

Most of the time they would not be allowed to build too close to the well, for roughly the same reasons you would not be able to build your house where you felt it should be. Ownership and rights.

If you think that's a problem then you should consider how stupid some people can be for actually paying for the water they drink, which comes in plastic bottles. Plastic bottles!!!

Answer 2

No.



For starters maybe their huts were built beside a well to begin with.Africa being Africa doesn't get a lot of rain so wells dry up,you source another and guess what,how inconvenient,it dries up and so on.You might also have some cattle which your livelihood depends on and their grazing land is not beside the nearest convenient well but Africa being Africa has some rather large predatory animals that require one to protect the cattle from,how inconvenient,tsk.So you have to stay near by at all times.Money for more elaborate wells that are less likely to dry up is a good idea but lets not pretend that these people inconvenience themselves for the hell of it.As for them having too many children (rolls eyes)has anyone actually seen the child mortality rates in Africa?If you have land or cattle you work it as a family and nature rather inconveniently wipes a lot of them out regularly.Life isn't quite as simple as the nice nine to five ones most of the no brainers here seem to have.Think before you answer!



Ah Bouncing-A voice of reason.

Answer 3

At first view, it seem a good logical question. But of course, things are never as simple as that.

I have no doubt as much work has gone into building that mud hut as goes into building our houses.



You might as well ask, why don`t we move near to the school you want your kids to go to. You know it is not as simple as that.



There might be land-rights. They might want to stay near family and relations. They might live relatively near to their work, or the shops of a small town or even a city. The well might be in a dangerous area to live in - there could be all sorts of reasons.

It is simplistic to assume all Africans can somehow get out of the predicament they are in. Sure, shysters exist in all communities, but so do hungry desperate people.

Answer 4

the priority with Africa is the remoteness. There are nevertheless people particularly components of Africa nevertheless being chanced on. that have by no skill been considered by using people earlier. it is not common to have faith. i these days study an editorial in a considerable information pulbication that stated this. There are places in Africa that guy has by no skill traveled by using. those everybody is so a strategies out and that they do no longer stay in rural components or in cities. you have communities of folk who're very, very distant the place they stay. hundreds or hundreds of miles faraway from fairly everybody. and that they've not got electrical energy. they do no longer understand something with regard to the "wells". and that they do no longer look as a thank you to in basic terms "flow" to locate water. In particular components of Africa as a results of droughts and different issues, water is in very short furnish and the folk who're around wells do no longer choose to proportion. And the wealthy people who fly over and who dig for water gain this at an staggering value. To take equipment and manpower into the very coronary heart of Africa is staggering. you haven't any longer any roads. Many components have by no skill been habituated. yet you're bringing in vast equipment. the place is the electrical energy. the place are the properties or inns for the folk you're flying in? those everybody is fairly having to hold tents and water and pork jerky. that's puzzling to understand. Africa is so vast which you may desire to take the full united states of america and multiply it over 14 cases and you may nevertheless no longer fill the full of Africa. It takes 8 hours to fly around the Atlantic from vast apple to the coast of Africa even though it takes 8 hours in basic terms to fly from one african united states of america to the subsequent.

Answer 5

I would imagine that they have built their huts on land that they have right to. I dont think they can just build their huts wherever they choose.

Answer 6

The mud has to be blessed by the witch doctor Obongo Dung Beetle otherwise the spirits of the Golly ghouls eat the children at night.

Answer 7

I liked your answer to this Bumbaclo, and I for one have stopped giving donations to all these so called people, as none of them seem to help themselves.Plus another fact is no one seems to know, or get any feedback as to if they get any of this money that we always seem to be giving.I have never seen any results from this only a couple of Schools that have been built in other parts of the World. like the answer says... why not move... you cannot keep donating to people who cannot be bothered to help themselves.

Answer 8

You would think that it would be a lot easier to move your Mud-Hut nearer to the Water supply – Maybe they like walking, it’s not like they have much else to do!

Answer 9

You can only build wells where there is water. If you build the houses near the well you may risk contaminating the water supply.

Answer 10

I think wells can only be built where there is water...



And yes, it will cost nothing to just build a house closer to the existing well...

Answer 11

Thirst is a good motivator. I wish more wells could be sunk but money is short.

Answer 12

i saw ricky gervais do the same sketch



good point however



i agree the best thing taht could happen for africa is stop the high level of children born

Answer 13

I've often wondered what life must be like for people whose lives are filled with a constant search for food and water.

That poor child how long must that take him out of his day?

Answer 14

Good points. You get a star.

Answer 15

Cos there isn't a regular bus.

Answer 16

Great points, which I had never thought of myself, *