Lac de Guiers

All these images were taken in the margins of the Lac de Guiers, in the region of Louga, north Senegal. They were all taken at about the same hour, by dusk. They are from different spots of the lake, Giddick and Guéweul, two small villages part of the arrondissement of Keur Momar Sarr, a small village with an official representation of the senegalese government.

The northern part of Senegal is a semi-arid desertified area that has endured a considerable period of drought, as it has been happening throughout all of the Sahel, comprising 11 countries ( Senegal, Mali, Niger, Sudan...). This specific region remembers its hardest year being around 1973. The water from this important lake has dried and the lake soil was cultivated, being the only moist soil available at the time. These harder years have passed, and the barrage of Diama was built, making the flows of water more regular, permitting the retention of water in a constrain in Guéweul. This water is not pottable but finds treatment in two stations located in the western banks of the lake. These treatment stations don't reach everyone though; their priority is to take water to Dakar, the capital of Senegal, to serve more than half of its 5 million population, helped by the additions along the main pipe of underground water sheets. But how come people not far away, and even by the side of the stations havent got any cleansed water?

I have much thought about it and for about four months have been trying to find some answers for this question questioning local people. That period has passed and i can't seem to come up with a single answer for that state of affairs. It is easy to point the finger and find a guilty party but it's more productive to try to see how having water or not having water may condition an entire way of living beside the obvious, the time spent to retrieve it.

Much can be said about the quality of this water. It is not potable. Any european or urban based person used to drink treated water would immediately feel the consequences diarreahs and all type of diseases catchable through the water. The dry season is worse, as the banks retreat the deposits tend to make the water more and more dirty, becoming quite dark. The dry season is nine months long in northern Senegal, but from the three months of winter not all is rain.

The bigger part of the small villages around have no access to potable water and many are forced to move as the dry season reaches its peak. Others, closer to the lake, go everyday to get the water they need for one day, getting back for the same next day. The whole process might take three to four hours. Normally the way is done on a cart pulled by donkeys found and bread on the bush, sometimes with horses, other even without cart. Plastic containers and air chambers are the avilable way to transport the much needed asset. As you see in that picture it's a women's work, and there are a load of reasons for it to be like that. I'll post later about it, dedicating more concise attention to that issue. As i will also talk a little about the fact that these populations are essentially Pulaar speaking people.

For now, it's important to underline the fact that not having the commodity of easy access to such an important thing as water leaves no room for lazyness, or tiredness. The people stand tall everyday to bring back to their village what they need. They are no victims.

(to be extended)