Preparing for an Apocalyptic Water Shortage or Even Worse: A Dibba Surplus...

I've never really held much stake in the idea that bottled waters had much differences between them. Especially the super expensive waters - Fiji Water, Smart Water... these, to me, were simply fantastic frauds pawning off Polish Spring at higher prices - and I love myself some Polish Spring. Water was water and that was it... until I came here.

When I first arrived here, Dibba reigned supreme. Dibba is bottled in the United Arab Emirates. You'd think the people of a desert country would appreciate the taste of good water, but you'd be wrong. I wasn't fully comprehending, then, that it tastes like a rust infused concoction of gutter water after a rain in a big city, put through a months-old coffee filter. Back then I'd drink it and think to myself, "hey, it's not too bad!". Now I know better.

Nestle water and Kinley water (owned by Coca Cola) are now, to me, like the dom perignon of all water. Still basically the same as Fiji and Smart water, but good lord can they hit the spot, and I'm certainly not the only one who has become a connoisseur of the bottled waters of KAF - I'm not even the first one to write about it.

For most of my time here Kinley and Nestle have been the water of choice for the powers that be to drop at various water drop points throughout the base, but throughout much of late-December and early-January we've been on Dibba... yuck.

You can imagine our collective mirth when one day in mid January - like mana from heaven - an entire pallet of Kinley was dropped next to the Ed. Center. Not wanting to share this bountiful harvest with the vultures that would doubtless descent on the Ed. Center at any moment, we took nearly all of it inside. Storage was a little bit of a problem as you can see below. Under circuit breakers, tables, along walls, in enclaves where people rarely go, we made sure to fill every open spot with delicious Kinley.

Lonely box of dibba water sits outside in the cold dust.

About two days after we carried all that water inside, another pallet of Kinley was dropped off so we didn't have to act as if we would make a memorable episode of hoarders. Such is the water situation in Kandahar.