One day in the spring of 1996, the Japanese Ambassador to Senegal received a letter. It was from the village chief of Malem Niani, who urged the ambassador to visit his village.

Japan had supplied grant aid to drill deepwater wells and install water-supply facilities in seven Senegalese villages. One of those villages was Malem Niani. Cattle-raising was the traditional mode of local subsistence, but water resources were scarce. Once supplies of rainwater collected during the rainy season went dry, the men in the village had to lead their cattle off on long treks in search of water while the women lined up every day at the village's only well. However, that well went dry under drought conditions that prevailed in the 1970s, thus forcing the villagers to seek water from another village 8 km away. To make matters worse, the water they received was contaminated, and as a tragic result, many of their children became ill. The deepwater well financed by Japanese aid was drilled in 1983. Water from that well supplied three communal pumps and four water troughs for the villagers' cattle. For many villagers today, the past era of water scarcity seems almost like a dream.

But the village chief wanted to show the Japanese ambassador something besides the bubbling fountain of water pouring from the well that had been drilled with Japanese aid. He wanted the ambassador to see how well the villagers had enlisted their wisdom to improve their quality of life after the well was complete. For one, Malem Niani now had its own local waterworks personnel lock up the faucets at the communal pumps every night to prevent young children from wasting precious water. Additionally, the villagers had begun paying utility fees into a pooled fund for water system management and upkeep. As the fund grew, it was utilized to finance projects for water-pipe extension work that connected the local school and community health center into the water system. Pipes were then extended out to the vegetable gardens and fruit orchards, allowing the village to boost its mango, banana, and lemon harvests. These developments in turn created more jobs for local youth. Now, Malem Niani has plans to build a water reservoir and begin raising fish stock.

Helping developing countries help themselves is one of the fundamental principles underlying Japanese aid. By pooling their wisdom and finances, the citizens of Malem Niani succeeded in transforming water facilities built with Japanese aid into a fountain of economic prosperity.

Water well facilities installed in an African village (the Kachi water supply project)