A few days ago I outlined how stock outs are prevalent throughout the stores. Additionally, other blog posts have alluded to water and electricity outages. This past week electricity supply has been remarkable--only a few outages totaling a handful of hours--but water has been exceptionally spotty for nearly two weeks. Perhaps the worst was yesterday when we had water for only a couple hours.
This reminded me of the water workers strike that occurred when we first arrived, also known as the PBE (Pre-Blog Era). After devaluation of the Malawian kwacha, many organizations and governmental branches wanted to maintain compensation packages at the same absolute numbers, meaning before devaluation a person was making 40,000 kwacha per month and was able to take a minibus for 100 kwacha, but after devaluation that same person was paid the same 40,000 but the minibus cost 200 kwacha.
Some worker groups demanded more pay, most notably the water system workers. Eventually negotiations broke off and the workers went on strike with the significant consequence that water stopped flowing. We had buckets filled throughout the house in preparation for up to a week of striking. The next day, however, a skeleton crew (perhaps scabs, but unconfirmed) returned to work to resume pumping but without chemical treatment. Because most residents do not treat their water, pockets of cholera broke out throughout the city.
Ultimately, after just a few days, an agreement was reached and the workers returned. Still, not a day passes without a significant break in service. I haven't had a shower in...
No comments:
Post a Comment