The surface of the Earth has been
designed and crafted to form rises and falls; mountains and valleys and high
areas and low areas. The high areas bare the solidity of the Earth while the
low areas (and slopes too) allow liquid water to flow over them or gather in
them. For that reason we have basins through which rivers flow over many miles
and through many countries. The Amazon basin is an example. Eventually rivers
flow into bigger basins called seas, themselves being low lying areas. So,
you see, water has its paths (small and big) or its space on the surface of
planet Earth. The paths are low-lying spaces.
However, for some reasons, people
decide and choose to build in waterways, thus obstructing passage of water as
it is naturally meant to happen. The rich, the poor, the ignorant and the
knowledgeable all build in waterways. In Ghana, a town in the Western region
called Nzulezu has a whole community sited on a river, with schools etc. In the
West there are sophisticated floating houses. And of course there is also
Venice in Italy.
There was a day (a few days ago) when
it rained. No sooner had it stopped raining than I step out of the house to buy
food. Where I was going to buy the food was sited in a water way, and not well
planned; the settlement as whole. After I bought the food, leaving, I had to
squeeze my way through the spaces in between the houses, while I gingerly step
over the water forcing (as a result of the rainfall) its way through the spaces
it could find in between the houses. The place ends up being stagnant with
water and waste, and swampy. Most of the
people living there appear to be squatters.
Suppose the path of the water had no
houses in it, the water should flow unhindered to its natural destination.
Comments
Post a Comment