They go early in the morning when the ground will be at its most moist. The rains have failed for the last two years, and there are a chain of puddles where the river should be.
The local tribespeople are proud and resilient, according the the Christian Aid spokesperson on the BBC this morning.
They are presumably using ages old technology. Perhaps children do this because they are better able to do it because of their smaller noses. If the tribe and culture die, this is probably not unusual in human prehistory. 90% of all human varieties have died out on this planet. The tribe may recover, but it is clearly living at the margin of existence. If it does not die of thirst and famine, it may die culturally by being relocated by humanitarian agencies like Christian Aid.
Meanwhile the pressure is on such charities. It is fifteen years since Bob Geldorf, a third rate British pop singer, launched "Live Aid" to help starving Ethiopians, and a jolly Christmas collective record called "Feed the World". But starvation and famine continue. Famine fatigue may prevent a further attempt.
Besides it may be the Ethiopians fault because despite the advice of NATO states that countries in receipt of aid should not go to war (NATO countries being exempt from this condition by definition) Ethiopia and Eritrea have gone to war. This is a double error because they were once both revolutionary regimes and former allies.
Since a country like Britain is the fourth biggest arms exporter in the world, military spending by poor countries is not always bad news for the richer countries.
Whether the Ethiopia could stabilise with regular aid policies rather than warm spasms of charity is not clear. Perhaps if some sort of world governance could come about that had in Christian Gregory's words at least a small aspect of social democracy to it, that might be possible.
Meanwhile if the Ethiopian children die from sucking up infected water, they will be replaced by others, although the tribe itself may die.
As we close the 20th century Malthus seems to be back with us in the continent that was the cradle of the human race.
The world capitalist system sucks wealth out of it faster than its children can suck up water from a parched river bed. And it is so hard to think what can be done.
Chris Burford
London