Every human being has to drink water, right? What happens when you live in a dessert? Despite sitting within the Sahara Desert, Mauritania is right on top of an aquifer. An aquifer is like an underground lake. Aquifer water can be extremely hard to gather, but aquifers are one of the best sources of clean water for people in Mauritania.
To reach clean water in an aquifer, you must dig down past the rocky and/or soil layer of the ground first. Sometimes the source of water is not very deep underground and the aquifer makes it easier to get the water. However, the closer the aquifer is to the top surface of the ground, the more likely it is that the water will look dirty or possibly be polluted. In Mauritania, it rains only for a few weeks each year, but when it does rain, the water seeps down through the ground and gets stored in aquifers.
In the capital city of Mauritania, Nouakchott, people can get their water much easier, since bottled water is available to buy. But, while this makes getting clean water easy, it is not the same case for people who are poor because they can not afford it. Most people throughout the country receive their water source from donkey-driven carriers, just like a delivery man, who brings bottled water to different towns.
