The Rights We Thirst For

By Ncamiso Mnisi

We are told we have rights,
written in ink,
spoken in speeches,
promised in laws.

But what is a right
when the tap runs dry,
when the river poisons our children,
when the well is locked behind fences?

N o c l e a n w a t e r —
will our children grow up
with poisonous rivers,
with a world unfit to breathe,
with an environment denied its purity?

Without water,
health is a mirage,
education evaporates,
dignity cracks like dust.

We rise because denial is violence,
because silence is betrayal,
because rights are not real
until every drop flows freely.

And so we sing,
not of thirst alone,
but of justice,
of the day when water
is no longer a privilege,
but the birthright it was always meant to be.

Ncamiso Mnisi is an environmental justice activist from Carolina, Mpumalanga. She leads water monitoring efforts and advocates for feminist organising in Silobela.