IS THAT POSSIBLE?

Wara Kolo, as known by many people in my area or Bulolo River as known by many others is the name of this big river that runs through our tribal land down to Bulolo Township. From Cement Bridge at Wandumi Village, which is about 3.2 kilometers from my village, up to several of our other tribal villages, we are established along the river banks and that part of the river up is always clean most of the time but after Cement Bridge and flowing downstream, that part of the river is usually dirty due to alluvial miners gold activities. It has always been dirty for ages, since the days of gold rush in Wau in 1920, and has never been clean but that’s another part of the story to tell later.

So most of our villages are built and established along the banks of Wara Kolo together with our gardens and coffee plantations. We live our lives around this river and it is a place where people hang out almost every day during the weeks and weekends. In my village, you would find little children swimming near the banks called laluek (in my language) supervised by adults. The river contained a large volume of water and was very deep at Kambani, which is the name of this location here, where we all congregate to wash and have fun. It used to be about several meters wide and had a very strong current which can be crossed or swam across only by adults.

You would find them play Peggy touch as well as Tag where a person chosen as the inflicted one would have to chase the others to touch and pass the infliction on any of them to free himself while the afflicted person would chase the rest to inflict and so forth without tagging back. You would see these adults and youths diving into the deep, swimming across, running on rocks, crossing the river, etc. It was fun to watch and as little children swimming in the shallow part of the river or sleeping on the rocks to dry ourselves, we would watch them and laugh away.

Others who were not engaged in playing would find themselves doing other activities like running off the top of the stone and somersault into the deep. Huge splashes would be seen spraying across to others who were sleeping and drying themselves on nearby rocks in the heat of the sun.

Hiding white colored rock at the base of the river in the deep and encouraging other adults to find it is also another game usually played including tube floating, high jumping, and ball passing, like volley ball except that in here there is no team, to keep it floating in the air without touching the water.

Tourists would often float down the river too on tubes on weekends, passing by and exchanging waves and hellos as we throw flowers welcoming and fare welling them while they throw sweets, chocolates or sweet biscuits back to us. Cheeky adults and youths would flirt with the young white guys and ladies as they laugh and float downstream to Cement Bridge for their pick up.

Picnics, barbecues, parties, etc with music were common on this bank. Looking across the river bank too you would find teenagers tying strings to sticks with baits and small white colored stones at the end of the strings to add density to the baits so they could reach down into the deep to catch fish. They would fish along the river banks upstream or downstream and return home in the evening with bundles of fish, often fried with onions and after eating we would end up begging for more. Adult men would block the river at certain points to catch eels which were often served as nutritious meals for families. Women would be doing laundry and dishes while telling stories and laughing away.

The village was always filled on the weekends and holidays as families return home to enjoy the river with those fun-filled activities. Those were some of the best memories growing up in the village.

Forty five years on and the river has reduced so drastically in terms of its width, volume and speed. What will happen in the next 45 years? Climate change is real and is here to stay if we do not do something about it to remove emissions from our human activities. In the next 45 years, we might see the riverbeds exposed and walked across easily by little children who were once forbidden by adults to swim across or they could be swept away by the strong water current. In place of eels in caves or under boulders, we might find snakes in those caves or under those boulders now exposed to the air. In place of fun and laughter, the banks might turn into big quarry harvesting sites.

Is that the future we want for our children and their children? I do not know about you but for me, I want to see those fun-filled activities return and continue under huge shady trees planted by the river side. I want to see the huge water volume and speed return and I want the exposed riverbeds to be completely covered again.

Is that possible?