My friend and colleague, photographer Thatcher Cook, took this
picture just over a month ago in southern Ethiopia. We were
visiting Mercy Corps projects in dozens of villages in the
country's Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region — a
deeply poor area inhabited by more than 45 different ethnic
groups. This picture begins to describe that poverty by
illustrating the meager flow of the Gatto River, a primary
source of water for this region. But — as you can see — there's
not much water to be had and dozens of people who want it.
Unfortunately, this was one of the most robust water flows that
I saw during my travels in Ethiopia. Most rivers, streams and
creeks were little more than dry, eroded gullies. A dribble of
water doesn't slake the thirst of families, not to mention
livestock and crops. And so places like the Gatto River become
hotly contested, because water — as we all know — is a matter of
life and death. I learned in Ethiopia that an estimated 70
percent of the country's challenges have to