NicolaSansom

So it's the final day of the water challenge and I am looking forward to a life of walking for the joy of it rather than having to to get enough water.

This last week has really helped to show me just how tough a woman who has to walk for her water has to be, there are difficult decisions to be made everyday about what to use the water for and how much time/ energy you have left after going to get your water. Water becomes something at the forefront of your mind and something you carefully measure and watch - I don't think I'll ever take turning the tap on for granted in the same way now.

This last week I have walked 86.1km which earnt me 284.13 litres of water and currently I have used 282.13 litres (likihood is I shall go over my quota before midnight tonight).

To achieve these water stats I have had to not wash my clothes or my hair and to wash from a bucket rather than a shower. I have had to measure/ rationalise every bit of water I am to use with many calculations on pieces of paper and literally see a lot of my water flushed down the toilet!

Highlights of this week have been meeting my MP John Leech and talking with him about climate change and my challenge and the fact he is going to support our challenges by putting an early day motion in about them! I have also felt hugely supported by the community of people doing the challenges and a lot of people who are not (thank you!).

An average person on the UK would use 1050 litres in a week = I used only a quarter of that this last week.

I think going forwards from this week I will try to make sure that I really try to reduce the amount of water that I waste. I think that a key way for us to think about tackling climate change is not just our carbon footprint but our water footprint too.

I hope that you have found my challenge and my blog interesting - thanks for reading!

Hello hello,

Today for once I have not been rained on - wahoo! So walking has actually been quite pleasant - plus I went to Liverpool which has slight hills and tis different roads to wander upon.

I went to Liverpool for Amnesty North West Conference and had an interesting chat about co-operation/ duplication. We are all people with simular values - be it oxfam/ greenpeace/ amnesty/ friends of the earth etc. so is it best that we should all focus on simular issues like climate change or should we all specialise in different areas?

A bit of both seems wise to me as there are many social justice issues that need to be addressed in the world and its good that there are people willing to take up those vital issues. But on issues such as climate change I do believe that we all need to come together as it's an issue that effects everything else that we are doing to tackle poverty and injustice!

 Water stats for day 5 & 6 combined (it's easier!)

Walked: 26.4 km Water available: 87.12 litres (+ 13.8 litres from t'other day) = 100.92 litres    Water used: 96.575 litres (been getting greedy with bucket showers!)

I'll be honest I'm really looking forward to a decent shower on Monday morning - long hair and one bucket of water doesn't equal a successful clean!

Until tomorrow (final entry!) - PS congrats to anyone who took part in the big climate connection today or yesterday to lobby their MP on climate change - I hope it went well - looks good from the website!

So today I walked in a different direction - I went to meet my MP John Leech at his constituency office in Didsbury (South Manchester).

We had a really good chat about the poverty challenge, what poverty meant to him, and even had a glass of water together!

We also talked about climate change and how we need to get more MPs seeing the long term importance of taking climate action now - perhaps by showing them the financial gain they will make in the long run? Though I stand by it being a justice issue for me - why should the poorest countries have to be hit the hardest by something they have barely contributed to?

We discussed how natural disastors were getting worse and more frequent and both talked of our personal experiences of visiting communities hit by climate change - John in Bangladesh and myself in Uganda.

We talked about the need for additional sources of financing beyond the 0.7% of gdp that's been promised for 2013 and of how the UK needs to be a world leader in tackling climate change and implimenting ideas like the robin hood tax to find the additional money needed to do so - rather than waiting for someone else to lead the way.

We also talked about how people like us poverty challengers could have more influence on shaping the governments policy - and he was very supportive of what we've done so far - going on to say get more people involved and talking to more MPs! That if people aren't out there showing that they care then the government wont consider it a priority issue.

In fact John liked the poverty challenge idea so much he is going to put an early day motion into parliament next week to highlight what we've been up to and the fact that over 100 people across the North of England (from the age of 4-60) took part to show their solidarity with people living in poverty in the UK and overseas.

Check out my video interview with John.

Finally I'd like to wish good luck to everyone taking part in the Big Climate Connection today/tomorrow - a mass constituency lobby on climate change right across the country! I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes!

Happy bonfire night everyone (I'll update with full walking/water stats and my story of being soaked through by a lorry tomorrow :)

So for the fourth day in a row I walked home in the rain ... 4 out of 4 ... must be getting a bit dull to read about. At least Manchester is keeping up its rainy reputation!

Today I got thinking a lot about the phrase 'water water everywhere but not a drop to drink' - it seems very apt for me at the moment when I'm tending to spend a couple of hours each day walking in the rain. It got me thinking about the water we can and can't use - did you know that only 0.7% of the world's water is freshwater available for drinking and with increasing population/ urbanisation/ climate change/ consumption of water that supply is going to more and more stretched. The other problem is that water is already poorly spread as it is and some countries don't have the infrastructure to access their water supply as well as others at the moment.

Water is an essential in our lives and I'm not sure until this week I have ever really thought about it that much and appreciated how lucky I am to have such easy access to as much clean fresh water as I want in my normal life. 

Water stats for the day:

Walked: 11.75km    Water earnt: 38.78 litres + (left over from yesterday 17.38) = 56.16 litres   Water used: 42.36 litres

Left for tomorrow: 13.8 litres ... Not a lot left tonight - went a bit crazy washing dishes and drank quite a lot because I was feeling a wee bit dehydrated. Once again I went into water debt in the morning despite my best efforts!

Ways I have managed to cheat the system to stay within my limit but that I wouldn't realistically be able to do forever:

- I haven't washed any clothes - despite the fact I have a lot of muddy trousers now from the rainy walks home.

- I have washed out of a bucket rather than showering as I normally do - I have not yet bucket washed my hair.

- I've eaten very dry food - though I have huge soup cravings

- I've tried to do as many water saving things that I can (though sadly I don't have a supply of hippos to put in every toilet and reduce the waste sadly as it's still annoyed how much flushing the toilet takes up out of my limit!)

Good news:

Tomorrow you won't just have to hear from me - I'm meeting my MP John Leech to talk about my challenge and what poverty, climate change and water means to him!

My challenge at the moment is to walk 6km to get water ... but if as a society we continue to generally ignore/ be apathetic towards climate change as we are now - how far will I have to walk next year to get my water? I want to know what I can do alongside my MP to reduce the distance that me and so many other women are walking for water today... rather than see it rise!

So as you may gather from the title I'm starting to get a bit tired of walking for water. I love to walk - in the hills and the sunshine and when I want to walk ... Not at the end of a day at work in the rain ... for the third day in a row. I'm just not sure that if I did have to do this everyday I'd be able to keep doing a full time job as well.

Tonight I was happy that it was only drizzle to walk home in - compared to last night's swim home. But I guess Im one of those people who likes to do things when I want to - not because I have to! Walking down the same dark, straight damp roads is just monotonous after a while. Why is it the morning walk in the light is always so much more pleasant?

I had a good afternoon in Lancaster meeting with the new Oxfam university group up there (including the lovely Heather Mack who I was pleased to see had not blown away in her tent!). But it's not a fun decision to make on the train home as to how far away train station I should get off at when all I want to do is get home into the warm ... but I want water when I get there!

Good points of today:

- Comments of support from people (including my MP John Leech) and reading how well everyone else is doing despite the challenges.

- Seeing the enthusiasm of uni students in Lancaster

- Reaslising I miscalculated my water so I might be able to water afford to bucket wash in the morning - you have no idea how exciting that is!

- Kindness of my lovely housemates despite my self pity

Worst points of today:

- Becoming so tired zzzzz (can I still blame it on the malaria? I think its been too long!) and feeling a bit fed up and a bit grumpy - I'm normally a pretty chirpy soul

- Realising I went into water debt this morning (from flushing the toilet and bucket washing) and realising therefore I was breaking the challenge as a woman who walked 6km to get her water wouldn't be able to do that.

- Seeing the waste of water along the way to and from work - hosepipes going on the floor, rain puddles that block the road and evaporate rather than going into the drains.

Water stats for the day:

Walked: 14.28km Water earnt: 47.12 litres + yesterdays left over (+5.83 left from yesterday) = 52.95 litres Water used: 35.575 litres

Water left over for the morning: 17.38 litres

Final water thought for the day:

Tomorrow is half way through (phew - I'm really not that tough I'm starting to realise!) - Today as I was walking I got thinking about water gadgets and wanted to share this ted video: Watch through to minute 7 and you'll see them discussing the fact that people don't need fancy gadgets to filter water just a simple bit of clean cloth folded up 8 times - why isn't this more well known? Why do people buy all the fancy water filters?

Righto enough of my moaning - after all I have a warm bed to go to. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back to my chipper singing in the rain self. Especially if my MP John Leech agrees to meet up on Friday to talk about my challenge???