On the ground report: Mauritania
The capital of Mauritania, Nouakchott was not planned very well when it was created in the desert about fifty years ago – mainly, they forgot to install any water system.
So, there are in excess of seventy thousand donkeys pulling carts with two forty-gallon drums of water round the streets (that’s the same as dragging 181.5 bottles of 2 litre soft drinks) for the good citizens to buy. Obviously without the donkeys the people of Nouakchott would be in a lot of trouble
Looking after those donkeys is the principal work of SPANA in the country.
But their biggest problem is the cart and its steering – or lack of it. The donkeys don’t have any bridles or reins, so the drivers steer the animals by whopping the round the side of the head, opposite to the way they want them to turn. (Admittedly, the better drivers just hit the shafts alongside the body). This can cause horrific wounds – we have had a campaign, making and distributing six thousand head-collars – to try and change the system – but we still see terrible damage.
Yesterday, we saw this poor wretched creature, with a swelling the size of a football on its flank. The owner had then ‘fired’ the original wound with a red hot iron – eventually creating this enormous abscess.
The animal was trembling with the shock and pain of it.
We cleaned it, and shaved the incision point, and at least three litres of pus and blood hosed out.
We took it back to the clinic, and with drainage put into the wound, antibiotics and plenty of TLC, the animal was unrecognisable this morning, tucking into his grub, after a good night’s sleep.
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