Ambotaka

When we arrived, the village was abandoned, apart from this man. He is part of the committee and tells us the story of the pump. The rest of the villagers are working on the rice fields but gradually gather around the pump while we talk. This pump had technical and social problems so it needed to be relocated. They had constructed a fence around it but that was destroyed by the cyclone last year.

They are happy with the new pump because they don’t need to drink from the river anymore. If there is a problem with the pump they do the ‘tok, tok, tok’ method, which simply means knocking on everybody’s door for the adidy. There are many people who contribute, but also people who don’t, that’s why they decided not to keep a cash register and only ask money when it is broken. But even if people don’t pay, they can still use the pump because they don’t want to embarrass the people who cannot pay. That would be a negative fihavanana.

The problem is that the pump belongs to the school, but they don’t take responsibility. It is quite remarkable that it is Friday, but there is nobody at school. The problem of the pump is a result of deeper political causes and a much bigger problem of lack of social cohesion. There is no motivation among teachers to work, because they often don’t receive any salary, so the school is frequently left empty.