I love this photo from Pakin atoll, one of the outer islands of Pohnpei. It is nice to see this family enjoy the refreshing and plentiful rain, especially considering that Pakin has been known to run out of fresh water supplies in the past. Hidden under vegetation in the atoll forest are remains of PVC pipes used to pump water from a relief ship to the island during one of the past droughts.
The groundwater table tends to be very shallow on the low islands. People dig wells by hand and easily reach fresh water. This is especially true in the interiors of islands with taro patches, where the land surface is lower than around the island perimeter and groundwater is found practically at the land surface. On this photo we see a young Chuukese woman on the island of Piis-Panew, the only permanently inhabited low island in Chuuk Lagoon, grabbing water from a very shallow well. The women in the background are cleaning taro.