Tap dreams: rural arid Senegal sits on water it cannot reach
EDWARD MCALLISTER WHEN the water well began to run low in this remote village in northern Senegal in 2010, the government drilled another one, fit with a shiny metal hand pump and a sign commemorating the investment. Today, it barely emits a trickle, residents say. Desperate in a sweltering region, the community last year raised $5,000 to try again. The new well failed to hit water and has become the butt of a bitter village joke. Kids make mocking sounds from the well mouth, their voices repeating down the empty, waterless shaft. Two studies last month touted groundwater as an…
