Water Water Everywhere! Sort of.

About a year ago, my village approached me to bring them a well.  There were two parts of the village that had to travel fairly far in order to get water, especially for drinking water.

My area of the village was included in this; my compound has a well, but it only function during the rainy season when the water table rises.  The rest of the year we had to go two compounds over to get out water.  This may sound close, but try carry liters and liters of water back.  I quickly became proficient at carrying water on my head, and just recently I could also carry one in my left hand as well.  This is when I officially became a Pulaar woman.

The other section of the village had to walk even farther.  On the other side of the road there is another village, called Sare Koutayel.  The women of Sanankoro would either pull water from the same well I did or go to Sare Koutayel.  Either way they were walking at least 50 yards per bucket, sometimes more.

Omar Diallo helping to dig the well

I know this sounds awful to you, but let's examine this for a second.  Think about how much water a person uses a day: cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, drinking, showering, hand washing.  Now let's remember that a woman pulls all of the water for her family.  If she has an older daughter, I'd estimate 12 or older, she is also expected to help her mother.  

My host moms, Oumou and Soso, are both young mothers with no daughters and no teenagers in the house.  Soso has to pull water for her husband and 4 young children to shower in the morning and the afternoon/nighttime; Oumous does the same for her husband and two children.  Whoever cooks pulls water to cook.  They each pull a several buckets for the drinking water, which is kept in clay pots in their rooms. If they aren't cooking they are probably doing laundry by hand.  Usually my host sister, Ramatou, does the dishes after school, and she pulls that water in a mini-bucket. She's about 8.

Think of all of this work, on top of carrying that water on top of your head.  It's exhausting. I know, since I'm pretty weak.  I never had a personal garden because I didn't want to go to the well two more times for watering on top of the three I already went for showering and drinking water, and more if I was doing laundry.

Sanankoro takes a photo at the well

So I totally believed that the village needed even one more well.  Luckily at the same time I was planning to finance one well in my village, another financier from an Islamic organization pledged another well, solving the problem of deciding where to put it.  My well went to the part of the village going to Sare Koutayel, and the other well came to my neighborhood.

To say that people were ecstatic is an understatement.  They are so happy, so grateful.  The women say they are less tired, the men are happy the women are happy.  

 Bringing new water resources is one of the best and EASIEST ways to increase health in the developing world.   Easy access to water promotes hand washing and hygiene.  Access to clean water decreases contraction of water borne diseases (diarrhea is one of the top three killers of children 0-5 in Senegal, not to mention everyone else). 

Some villagers praying for the well

If there's something you'd like to do to help increase access to clean water, I'd like to recommendWater Charity to you.  They have funded countless water based projects throughout the developing world, including mine.  Thank you to everyone who has already donated! My village really appreciates it.