The rainy season in Niger only lasts for three to four months. The rest of the year it is very dry and desolate. The search for water for drinking, cooking, bathing, washing dishes and clothes, and watering their animals becomes a daily struggle.

There are no wells in several of the villages where Samaritan’s Purse is working. People must collect water from low areas where water has gathered during the rainy season. The water is stagnant, usually very dirty, and animals are often found standing in it.

Once the ponds dry up during the hot season, people are forced to resort to digging holes. When water is found, it is quickly taken advantage of by the many women waiting eagerly to take it back to their families.

When the water is completely consumed, the men are forced to dig deeper. Or to begin digging other holes.

A Samaritan's Purse Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene team recently visited the village of Kalague. Over 20 holes had been hand dug by villagers. Most had already dried up. There was a long line of jerry cans and buckets sitting and waiting to be filled up.

Men, women, and children were all working very hard to lower their rubber baskets down into the holes that still had water with a coarse rope to pull up enough to fill their buckets. Once they have a full bucket, they make the long trek back to their homes with the water on their head. The women make at least five trips to get water a day, usually more.

In Kalague and other villages in Niger, Samaritan's Purse is working hard to provide clean and accessible water. We have rehabilitated three wells, and are in the process of constructing two brand new ones in the area. We plan to start construction on new wells in six other villages.

The wells radically transform the lives of the people.

Salamatou is the representative of the “kungiyar rijiya” (well group) in the village of Jirga Mahamada, where Samaritan's Purse has rehabilitated a well. She opens the lid in the morning and closes it at night. She stays at the well for most of the day making sure it stays swept and clean and that people are using it correctly.

Salamatou is overjoyed about the new well and takes great pride in her work.

“Before (Samaritan’s Purse came) the well was never full,” she said. “People were coming to the well at all hours of the night and day to wait for water.”

With a big smile, she said that now the well it is always full and no one has to come to the well at night searching for water. Salamatou said that the improvement was especially an advantage for young girls sent to the well to fetch water for their entire families.

A teen-aged girl leaves the well with a bucket of water on her head, headed back home. There are over 20 people in her household, and she alone is tasked with getting water. The new well has greatly helped with her strenuous work. Not only has it helped diminish the time she used to spend waiting for water, but the pulley system has made retrieving the water much easier for this tiny girl.

Samaritan's Purse , Niger , Food and Water , Water in the Desert