Gambian mother carries 20k water container for Paris Marathon

A mother from Gambia has made headlines this week after pictures of her walking the Paris Marathon with a 20kg container of water on her head emerged.

Siabatou Sanneh (43), who has four children back in the Gambia, left her homeland for the first time to take part in the race and raise awareness of water sanitation, alongside charity Water for Africa.

Donning a brightly coloured traditional African dress along with her water container and a placard that read “In Africa, women walk this distance every day to collect water. Help us shorten the distance” Siabatou walked most of the 42k marathon hoping to get the attention of the 7^th World Water Forum which took place in South Korea earlier this week.

“I came to Paris to do the marathon to raise awareness and help the African women get clean water for their domestic use – for drinking, cooking, washing and gardening to grow agriculture,” she told the IBTimes UK, through a translator.

“In my country, you grow what you eat and you eat what you grow, but you can only do that with sufficient water.”

From when she was about five years old, Siabatou walked several miles a day just to find clean water for herself and her family to drink. Today, Siabatou and her two daughters, aged 12 and 20, continue this harrowing tradition which Siabatou hopes she’ll be able to put an end to. Despite the distance she is forced to travel simply to stay hydrated, Siabatou and her children often fall sick because the water they drink is dirty.

“Sometimes my children and I have diarrhoea,” she added. “When we go to the hospital, which is very far away, they tell us it is because of the dirty water we drink,”

During the dry season, when the wells dry up, things are even worse, and at times Siabatou and her family have to wait weeks before being able to get some water, which in the end usually causes her to get sick.

Water for Africa, a water sanitation charity currently work in Siabatou’s village, installing water pumps and other sustainable water sources. They estimate that between 300-400 water pumps will be needed to supply Gambia with clean water.

Although Siabatou was unable to finish the race, as the container was too heavy to carry the whole way, she hopes her actions will encourage people to donate to the charity.

“I expect this will enable people to donate so we can have clean water in African villages,” she added.  “I don’t want my children and their children to be collecting water from the well when they are my age.”