The Water of the Mekong River

As you can see, the waters on the Mekong River is anything but clean. It is brown and opaque and there are lots of rubbish and debris floating around on it. But this is where 60 milliion people call HOME. This is but a sampling of what is done in these waters. They do everything in the water - swim, bathe, play, wash their clothes and do their nature call in it. And yes, this is where they get the water for cooking and drinking. For their drinking and cooking, they pull water out of the river in small buckets and store them in large jars to allow the sediment to settle to the bottom before using them. Some of the poorer families who cannot afford jars, just use the water straight off the river. None of them have heard of chlorine tablets.

It was really a sight to see children happily playing naked in the river. Also saw a mother bathing her crying few-months-old baby with water from the river. Saw another man washing his chicken in the water. Probably, it would have been better if they had not bathed or used the dirty river water for washing, but this is the way of life on the Mekong and they do not know any better.

I never felt so thankful for clean water before...

In my next post, I will show more aspects of life on the Mekong ...