The Vicar's Wife

When people ask me what my job is these days, I usually say I’m a mother, or a full time clergy wife. And that I’m not paid to do either of these things! And since people like to pop people in pigeonholes, they are sometimes surprised to find out, usually at a much later date, that I used to design systems for mechanical equipment for water and sewage treatment.

Sometimes I want to tell people that I was a sh** engineer, but I wasn’t that bad really and also I tend not to swear if I can help it. I can still spot all the sewage works from a train window, though.

I quite enjoyed working in the water industry. I spent my UK career with consulting engineers, Mott MacDonald and then worked in Malaysia for the (then) new national wastewater (euphemism for sewage) company, Indah Water. After that, whilst we were still living in the Far East, I worked as a freelancer for Symonds Travers Morgan and French contractor Vivendi Water.

Anyway, today I thought I’d tell you a bit of my watery history,because today is Blog Action Day. Now, I’m not normally into memes and group bloggy things, but water is something I know a bit about. Actually, I probably know more about dirty water (another polite word for sewage). But the challenge is that about one in six people in our world don’t have access to clean drinking water. And often the reason that drinking water isn’t clean is because the wastewater hasn’t been cleaned up. And nobody ever thinks about the sewers. Do you know where your local sewage works is? Thought not.

So I don’t know what I’m urging you to do, because I looked at the petition on the Blog Action Day site and it was just asking the UN to do something they want to do anyway. And you couldn’t sign unless you had a US zipcode. I don’t really think that will help. But be thankful for your water. Pray for those without. Give to a charity that seeks to supply clean water. WaterAid comes to mind, or Tearfund. Oh, and wash your hands, cos today is also Global Handwashing Day.