The Water Walker

From: Jessica Partnow
Length: 05:49

A day in the life of an Ethiopian woman who walks hours each day fetching water. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: The Water Walker
From: Jessica Partnow

Day6faadi_small A sound-rich piece taking us through a day in the life of Fadi Jilo, a woman in southern Ethiopia who spends four and a half hours each day walking to fetch water for her family.

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Piece Description

A sound-rich piece taking us through a day in the life of Fadi Jilo, a woman in southern Ethiopia who spends four and a half hours each day walking to fetch water for her family.

Broadcast History

First aired on the World Vision Report, 17 February 2008.

Transcript

SCRIPT
[Nighttime ambi from Dillo]

Dillo Town is a short stretch of thatched huts lining a dirt road in southern Ethiopia. About 32,000 people live in this community. It?s 44 miles from the nearest paved road, 9 from the closest manmade well, and two days? drive from the capital city, Addis Ababa. We?re close to the Kenyan border here ? and not much else.

[Nighttime ambi from Dillo ? fade into ambi from Fadi?s hut]

By 6 am Fadi Jilo is hard at work.

Fadi: I wake up early in the morning and I light a fire to make some tea for breakfast.

Fadi is 30 years old and has three young children.

Fadi: Then I clean my house. I have goats and I take them to pasture. After I take the goats, I go to fetch water.

[Fade down Fadi?s hut ambi]

This is the height of Ethiopia?s dry season. Water and pasture for livestock are scarce. Fadi is anxiously awaiting the rains, expec...
Read the full transcript

Timing and Cues

Note that the World Vision Report Intro and Backannounce are included in the PRX audio file.

Host Intro:
In many parts of the world, women and girls walk long distances or spend hours waiting in queues for water. And often that water isn?t even clean.

According to a 2006 United Nations report, diarrhea caused by contaminated water is the second largest cause of child mortality, claiming the lives of 5,000 children every day. That?s 5 times as many as HIV/AIDS.
In Ethiopia, the lack of potable water is compounded by the increasing incidence of drought.

Jessica Partnow brings us this story about a day in the life of a water walker. (28s)

HOST BACKANNOUNCE
Funding for this segment was provided by the Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting. Follow more of the Common Language Project?s reporting on water issues in Ethiopia and Kenya at CLPMag.org. (10s.)