Climate Change: We were dealt with

In the city I currently live in, the water table is not deep like it is in other places, and this is why it’s very easy to sink a borehole here. This is also the reason the area is prone to flooding—because once there’s a lengthy period of heavy rainfall, the ground gets saturated with water quickly and struggles to absorb any more.

Last year, something happened that really got me off my feet. The big soakaway in the compound had been full for a very long time, and because the landlord decided to turn a deaf ear to the issue, we resorted to using the smaller one that’s also in the compound. During the rainy season last year, the small soakaway also got full. We were very surprised, and when we asked around to find a way to discharge it since it’s a smaller one, people said it wouldn’t be easy to do because it was the rain causing it to get full.

To explain clearly, whenever it rains—because the water table in the area is shallow—the rainwater easily seeps into the soil and fills up the small soakaway. The soakaway has a small opening at the top, and anytime it rained, the water from the soakaway would overflow and mix with the floodwater in the compound. It was so terrible. Although it wasn’t smelly, it was very irritating.

During that period, anytime there was a change in weather indicating it was about to rain, I would get very angry within myself because I knew the rain wouldn’t just be a light drizzle but a very heavy downpour. Once the soil got saturated with water, the awful experience would repeat itself. I hated rainfall during that time. I wished and prayed for the rain to finally stop so we could switch to the dry season, but there was no way—it rained every day as if the clouds were evacuating all the old water to make room for new ones to come in, just like a room being cleared out to allow new content.

We didn’t wait for the rainy season to end completely before we remedied the situation. Once there was a brief break—maybe two to three days of no rainfall—we had to call the person who works manually on soakaways to come and fix it. That was when we truly became free. Even after it was finally done, we were still praying that the rainwater from the soil wouldn’t refill the soakaway once it started raining again, because the soil in this city is water-circulated. Any excess rainfall causes flooding easily.

This year, when the rain started falling close to the same intensity as last year, all I have been praying for is that what happened last year should not repeat itself. So far, it has been raining, but it hasn’t reached the same intensity as last year, and I hope it doesn’t—because the situation might escalate again.

Thanks for reading

Photo used is mine

This is my entry to Week 172, Edition 02 of the Weekly Featured contest in Hive Learners Community