“In the year of 2006, the General Assembly of the United Nation expressed its concern with the desertification of the planet we inhabit, and particularly with the impoverishment of Africa. Following this assembly, 2006 was to be the International year for Deserts and Desertification. The main goal of this initiative was to support a set of events focusing on awareness on the new challenges posed on countries, international institutions and individuals, and their coordination against the gradual and troublesome impoverishment of arid zones, more and more subjected to the consequences of larger periods of drought.
When we leave our climatized environment in Europe and slowly get to the Sahel, that strip of land under the Sahara desert we have to question what is it that we actually know about extreme conditions.
As a timid reply to our anxities we have decided that we would direct this film rejecting any type of pre-fabricated discourse on the value of the situation we would find in the northern region of Senegal. Any extrapolations, connections, or echo of overly engaged discourses is not of our responsibility. This film was first and foremost an exploration on aspects of life in the village of Keur Momar Sarr, in the region of Louga, where a typically sahelian landscape is interrupted by the majestic Lac de Guiers, probably the most important water ressource on the central and northern part of Senegal.
In this film we follow daily activities around the village, focusing on access to water. In the houses of Keur Momar Sarr, in the neighboring village of Robo or in the farther Ndialbenabe Macka, potable water is a ever present concern and a heavy burden in peoples' actions.
But there are some important contradictions on the access to this vital resource, it is easily available to some and to other it means daily hardships. The water of Lac de Guiers is exploited for both agriculture and drinking, representing three quarters of the water of the urban agglomeration of Dakar, when small villages around the treatment stations still wait for someone to campaign for their visibility.
This makes this resource a strategic one, first and foremost at a national level, which is the reason why local populations are often disregarded lesser priorities.But despite hardships people show their dignity rejecting condescendence, associating and using their own clientelist networks to influence their access to vital developments.
The name Waalo Waalo is what the people of this zone are called, recalling the ancient kingdom of Waalo, the first of the wolof kingdoms to be taken by the french.
Language: Wolof; Subtitles: English.
