United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 is to Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. After almost a week here in Liberia living in the apartment that Jetro Web Development uses as its office, I have a much deeper, more personal connection to this goal than before I arrived.

Life Without Running Water

They physical environment in the office here is very comfortable. It's a newly built apartment, and the tile on the floor shines, kept clean by Daniel's diligent maintenance. The first night I slept on the inflatable mattress with built-in electric pump that I had brought with me. Daniel had the mosquito netting waiting for me. It works like a charm too. While insects have not been a problem here in Montserrado County in general, I have woken up several times to see a few of them perched on the outside of my net.

Unfortunately the motor stopped working after the first night (I suspect the power outages and surges are the cause) and we had to scramble to make a trip on day two to purchase a mattress. We found one for \$60, and I have slept comfortably on it ever since.

Water, even more than electricity, is the greatest challenge. The apartment does not have running water. Running water is not something regularly provided here. Providing running water is not the kind of problem a neoliberal economic system can solve. Instead, neoliberalism gives us this:

We have a functioning bathroom sink and drainage pipe, but we need to use highly commodified, bottled water. I have to admit to getting a little nervous about forgetting to restock our bottles of water, and waking up in the middle of the night thirsty with nothing to drink.

The toilet likewise has working exit plumbing (thank God for that!), but the water to flush it needs to be poured in with a bucket from a large container next to it.

This container is filled daily from a nearby well. We are in a second floor apartment, so it is with no shortage of guilt that I watch Daniel walk up and down the stairs carrying buckets of water to fill our container. My custom has always been to insist on participating in the daily labor of the household when I visit, but at 65 years old with one knee already replaced and the other not in the best shape, I have decided not to insist on helping Daniel carry water.

Our shower also has perfectly functioning drainage. I've long been accustomed to the "bird bath" showering procedure from my stays in Latin America and my time in a homeless shelter in South Arlington back in the 1980s, so I feel right at home with this part of the daily routine, and do not miss running shower water nearly as much as I do running tap water for the sinks.

Finally there is the question of the safety of the well water. I haven't done anything to investigate that, and don't plan to, since there isn't anything I could do about it if I did. When I raised the question, Janet suggested we add something she called "water guard" to the water container in the kitchen. We found it in the supermarket, and it turns out it is just sodium hydrochlorite (a.k.a. bleach) packaged for use in potable water.

Experience Strengthens Understanding

While I believe it is certainly possible, essential actually, that people can understand the trials and tribulations of their fellow human beings without experiencing them directly, direct experience does make understanding real in a way abstract knowledge can not.

One of the crucial benefits of making the trip to Liberia to spend time in the same physical space in which Jetro Web Development operates is precisely the concrete experience it gives me of the challenges they face every day. Having this experience strengthens my understanding of what it will take for Jetro to become successful as a web tech cooperative.