We cannot afford a bag of water at 400 naira - What if we boil our tap water?

I didn't think the store owner was talking to me so I went ahead to carry the transparent bag that held 20 sachets of water and then handed out a 200 naira note to her.

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She looked from the money to me contemptuously, as if I had a plague in my hands.

“Did you not hear me the first time? I said a bag of water now goes for 400 naira”

“Oh…” I responded, too surprised to speak. Only the week before I purchased a bag for 200 and now it was double the price. I apologized to her and got 2 cold sachets instead since I didn't have the complete money at hand.

When I arrived at my house, my roommate Favour, had already prepared the plate and spoons for us to drink garri as our lunch. When she saw me holding a small, black, nylon, the lines on her face creased into a frown.

“Doesn’t she have a bag of water?”

I sighed and tore one of the sachets, allowing the cold water to flow gently into the processed cassava Favour had heaped into a plate along with groundnuts and a sachet of milk.

“My dear, water is now 400 naira for a bag”

“You don't mean it!” Favour said wide-eyed. The rate at which prices of goods were rising was too surreal. 4 days ago, I went to get a 60 leaves exercise book at 250 naira, by the time I returned to the same bookstore 3 days later to get another one, it was being sold for 350 naira.

“We cannot afford a bag of water at 400 naira o, what are we going to do now?” Favour was saying. I turned my attention back to her and sighed. She was correct. With the inflation, we were already living far above our means, especially because of foodstuffs.

“We can drink tap water now. After all, we no be ajebutters!” I said in pidgin drawing laughter from the both of us. Favour nodded in agreement when the laughter had subsided.

“You're correct. Let's fetch water from the tap henceforth”

And that we did, until 2 weeks later. I returned from school before Favour and since the sun was scorching, decided to have a cup of water before taking my clothes off.

I took out a mug from the basket I kept my plates and turned the faucet in my kitchen on. Thankfully, I took a peek into the cup before lifting it into my mouth. I nearly screamed.

There were tiny brown particles swimming around. I thought it was rust but when I brought it closer, I saw that it was probably residue from a dirty tank. I covered the water so I could show my roommate when she returned and went out to get some sachets of water.

“Jesus. We've been drinking nonsense all the while” my roommate said when she returned and took one glance at the water.

“We cannot continue to drink this water like this. It has to be purified in one way or the other” I said

“We can buy this water guard, or what do they call it?”

I nodded. “That's if we'll see it eventually. It's been a while since I even heard of such a thing”

We sat together in silence, staring at the polluted cup of water when Favour suddenly said, “What if we boil our water? We have an electric kettle so we can do that when there is light”

“That sounds like a plan. We can also get a white handkerchief to filter the water when it's warmer”

I didn't expect Favour to burst into uncontrollable laughter.

“Filter water? How? Why?”

“You haven't heard of it before? I was taught in primary school”

“Really?” She had genuine surprise on her face

“Ah…yes o. It's just a way of ensuring that the water is really free from impurities”

“Then what are we waiting for? Please let's plug the kettle with water in it so that even if we're asleep when power is given, we'll still have water tomorrow”

I rose to fetch some water into the kettle after she spoke. Monitoring to see if the brown particles were still in it, and they were. Favour was also peeping into the kettle.

“So you're saying that when we boil this water and filter it out these particles will no longer be present?” I nodded. “Let's try it now. We can boil a kettle of water using our gas then filter it and see what it looks like.” I wanted to argue but she added, “At least to see if the method is foolproof”

I understood that she wasn't familiar with the process so instead of arguing, I promised that we would try the process only after we had taken a nap.