Out in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of south-east Africa, lies an island so extraordinary that scientists have dubbed it “the eighth continent”.
Isolated from other land masses for millions of years, and untouched by human feet until as early as AD900 or so, it has evolved its own distinct ecology, and is home to an astonishing array of wildlife. These include more than 100 varieties of lemurs – a strikingly unusual primate unique to the island – as well as thousands of endemic plant species.
Although it lies only 250 miles off the east African shoreline, the island’s first settlers came from the distant east, from the Sunda islands of the Malay archipelago. They were intrepid seafarers, braving the waves in nothing larger than outrigger canoes. Over the centuries, the early settlers were joined by fresh waves of migrants, including Bantus from southern Africa, Indians, Somalis and Arabs, forming the rich mix that is today’s Malagasy (Madagascan people).
The first humans to set foot on Madagascar found a land that was green and well-watered, with coastal rainforests rising to a central plateau. Here, they cleared the upland forests and set up a sophisticated culture based around taro and rice-growing, developing complex irrigation systems that survive to this day. Rivers and streams cascade down from the heights to the sea.
Yet, despite all that irrigation, half of its 26 million population have no access to clean water, and nine out of 10 lack a decent toilet.
It’s a paradox summed up by WaterAid’s Laura Summerton, who has come to know the country well in her work documenting the lives of local people and how WaterAid helps them tackle this fundamental need. “Madagascar is the most beautiful land I’ve ever seen. Much of it is lush, it’s rich in rice fields, but they are simply suffering from a lack of infrastructure.” And, she adds, poverty: Madagascar may be beautiful, but it’s one of the poorest countries in the world, with four out of every five people living below the poverty line.
Living without such essentials makes life needlessly tough for Madagascar’s rural poor. The time spent collecting water keeps children from school and women from earning a living, holding back whole communities from reaching their full potential. Diarrhoea is one of the biggest causes of death for children under five, and millions of adults and children alike are vulnerable to regular bouts of sickness because of the lack of clean water or decent sanitation.
WaterAid staff in the country have seen it all firsthand, and in some cases, lived it, too. Ernest Randriarimalala, the organisation’s Voices from the Field officer, who documents WaterAid’s work through his photography, recalls his rural childhood. “Me and my little sister used to walk downhill to fetch water from a pond near the rice field, three or four times a day, before and after school. And it was dirty water. There was no water supply at school, either, so we couldn’t even have a drink there.”
It’s that personal experience that fires up Randriarimalala and his WaterAid colleagues as they work with local government, water companies and the communities themselves to bring clean water and decent sanitation to villages in some of the most deprived areas of the country. They are launching a £1.5m programme to bring clean water, good sanitation and hygiene to the area, which, when complete, will reach more than 12,000 people. It’s building on work that has already transformed lives, such as Randriarimalala’s, in villages across Madagascar.
Alongside helping build the life-changing facilities, WaterAid has teamed up with Fujifilm to help children from the areas where they are working tell their own stories, giving them cameras to document their daily lives, as part of a scheme to give them a voice and provide an insight into the difference clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene can bring. The results are captured in a beautiful book, Madagascar in the frame, and an exhibition open until the end of January at London’s Fujifilm House of Photography.
The book and exhibition will help readers and viewers get to know these rural Malagasy people, their day-to-day concerns, challenges and ambitions – how the football went, how their kids are performing at school, what they want to be when they grow up.
If these ambitions are to be realised, however, they need that one thing that so many of us take completely for granted: clean water, flowing freely.
To learn more about WaterAid’s work in Madagascar and its Access Denied appeal, click here. For dates and details of the exhibition at Fujifilm House of Photography, follow this link.
Since 2012, Fujifilm has donated a total of more than £525,000 to support WaterAid’s work around the globe.
