Wilderness Roads: Malawi | Forging Paths in the Most Remote Territories | Free Documentary

[Music] [Music] [Music] in Malawi a small country in southern Africa an exceptional collection of wildlife lives along the shy River and benefits daily from its vast water reserve for 102 km long the river is the only Outlet of Lake Malawi third largest of Africa's Great Lakes but just hours away in the vicinity of the mountains of Fury Longway the human beings don't share the same Destiny as that of these animals they live along the Great Rift Valley in a particularly arid region covered with Savannah deprived of drinking water isolated and cut off from the rest

of the world men women and children struggle to survive because water is vital they are forced to recover drop by drop water that is unhealthy but which oozes through to the surface naturally at rare spots first come first served the daily collection of water is exhausting and takes hours it's a matter of life than [Music] death to put an end to this unbearable situation the inhabitants of Fury Longway will join forces and attempt to Halt their isolation by building a road to the heart of the African Savannah that will change their lives this year the

government financed the construction of a bridge on the main trail leading to Fury long way now it is time to strip away the formwork the structure should withstand the heaviest Vehicles without difficulty this dried up water course that is awoken from its bed each year in the rainy season should no longer present an obstacle to those journeying to Fury long way Kurt D is an American Pastor on Mission in the country he's particularly attentive to the birth of this new bridge going and coming waiting for this to be finished so we can drive on it

we're pretty excited each year Kurt comes to Mala to dig Wells for those who still have no access to drinking water I'm really excited to see any road construction taking place here in Malawi been coming for 24 years and one of the things that I feel is very important to the development and the rising of Malawi is good road access so we have two different areas we're trying to reach here in the Philly long way uh Federal Reserve that are impossible to get [Music] to Kurt knows the isolation and distress of the inhabitants of Fury

long way he also knows that with no passable road to reach the remotest people his mission will be sorely compromised [Music] in Africa over 300 million people have no access to drinking water Malawi is no exception and yet a solution exists dig Wells the inhabitants of Fury Longway are aware that the drilling rigs cannot come to them unless they join forces and together build a stretch of road through the bush [Music] the dwellings are sparsely scattered and strictly speaking aren't really Villages at all isolated with no roads there are several hours walk from the main

track the nearest Villages schools and markets it's taken us about 3 hours on a dirt road to get here where we are now today and at the end of this road there is a number of of villages that are inaccessible and because of the great difficulty of getting into this area even with the vehicles we have it makes it impossible for drilling trucks to get here so we are going to go as far as we can and we'll determine the best way to get a road in here [Music] as every day yasinta must walk 4

kilm to fetch the water that ensures her whole family's [Music] survival she patiently Waits her turn for a chance to fill her bucket [Music] the water here that we drink isn't good we have to share it with the frogs as well as the turtles the lizards the snakes the dogs the highers and whole herds that drink here look how dirty the water is it's a problem for women like us we have to fetch the water and carry it home to use it during the rainy season all the germs fall here fetching water is a woman's

job regardless of her age or state of health in Fury Long Way access to drinking water is a real emergency this is the the difficulty of getting back in this area is there's three major places like this that uh we have to cross and to resolve this isn't even the most difficult one there's another one even bigger than this up ahead so we'll have to figure this out Edwin Edwin is Kurt's right-hand man in the field throughout the years here he travels the region and determines which places to help out first if there's a road

he can come and dig a well you remember that really difficult part of the road as we were coming in with the Rocks I think that needs to be filled in better there in order for the truck to get there yeah so that's that would be the first area of my concern first area of difficulty that they should work on what do you think about that section Edwin because it looked pretty I I think just because they are like a steep which are three of them it will take at least a month so instead we

had to make a diversion they'll have to create a new road Al together yes around especially if the rain come we'll never be able to get through there we need to get the Drillers in here just as quick as we can before so let's go check it out and let's go see what we got to do here every going to make this possible are you well Chief chaer hello it's good to see you thank you so we are we are planning to have bohos yes in this area for months Edwin has been in contact with

the chief of his village located to the north of Fury long way the first well to be brought online will have a wide catchment in this Zone to meet youday relieved that a well is being installed for his community the chief nevertheless makes sure nobody has been forgot this way we will be more respectful of our friends who live here and who go to fetch the water on that hill over there we have plans for the Drillers to come soon to this location at P Longway Hills we have to build this road so I'm so

happy to see so many of you out here today to work willingly to do this so maybe you woke up today and said this is a dream come true a Lulu a v v Al looma [Laughter] Loompa okay let's get started [Music] despite a lack of suitable equipment all are determined to build this road so that the drilling truck can pass this is extremely difficult this is probably our our most challenging B hole project that we've ever done but I'm pretty excited about it because so many people are willing to help out there's an African

proverb it says if you want to go fast you go alone if you want to go far you go [Music] together throughout the year Kurt collects money to finance the wells this year the success of his project depends as much on donors as on the enthusiasm of the fury longwear residents on the ground [Music] just 3 km away to the south of Fury long way yasinta has returned home and is preparing a meal for the whole family whether you go to the water Hall at 6:00 in the morning or 6:00 at night you always find

somebody there sometimes we even have to sleep there and we make a fire sometimes we even have to go far into the mountains to fetch [Music] water yasinta and John have been married for 18 years they have had eight children together six of whom still live with them the single bucket of unclean water fetched daily is used for all domestic tasks drinking cooking washing up and washing the youngest children [Music] [Music] [Music] north of Fury Longway locals who have waited since time in Memorial for well to be dug are exhausted by the work and the

heat we're not just putting holes in the ground to please donors we want people to have water and we want to have it for a long long time so I'm really excited about this community of people how hard they're going to work to make this really a dream come true for them they they can't even imagine that this is happening to them right now for the first time a drilling truck has ventured into this isolated region of the world and it's a major event [Music] reaching the end of the still passable Trail the drivers must

now take the new stretch of road cleared by the villagers but they remain cautious one forgotten stump could shred a tire and bring their progress to a halt [Music] so good to see you we've waited so long for you the villagers hastily finish off the last few meters with their pickaxes let's go they'll tell us where to unload all this looking at the whole area it shows that this is the right place for a Boh in a sense of its physical features it's not like on on a hill that it's like rock or it's not

like on the River but it's just at the right place Edwin's very positive to there's water here and so we like that positivity so we're going to test that right now we're going to have the guys back in and we're going to get them going we've been waiting a long long time for this to happen so we just want to see some water coming out of the ground [Music] come [Music] [Applause] after the drill is installed the work [Applause] begins adding bits as it goes the drill penetrates the soil bringing sand and broken rocks to

the surface [Music] as the hours Creep by the work continues under blazing [Music] sun everyday Heroes the members of the drilling crew work relentlessly their mission is to bring water to the remotest settlements and it's a am of task every 5 ft or so the length of a drilling B they sample the soil to observe its composition suddenly Edwin is alerted by the texture of the soil the humidity of the sand is a very encouraging sign [Music] at a depth of 21 M the water table has been reached but they will have to dig down

to 40 m to be sure of having enough water even in periods of great drought attentive to the changes taking place before their eyes the villagers are already preparing the next course [Music] Stones bricks and sand everyone is set to work finding the materials needed to consolidate the inside of the well and to build up its [Music] Edge another few days of effort and the women can stop fetching dozens of liters of dirty water [Music] forever this morning to the south of Fury long way yasinta and her community are burning and cleaning last season cotton

plantations before the rains [Music] come the problems linked to the lack of water forc them to make impossible choices water is a terrible problem here if you want to drink you can't look after your crops and if you go to the fields it means you'll have nothing to drink [Music] [Music] while their parents work in the fields the children indulge in their favorite pastime termite Gathering [Music] [Music] but to them catching insects isn't just a game [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] meanwhile to the north it's time for the final fitting the 40 m of tubes that

will lead down to the underground water table are assembled and [Music] [Music] secured the workers know that in a few hours their work will be finished soon they will inject compressed air into the base of the well to send the water gushing to the [Music] surface are here in November and in America we have this very unique Halloween holiday it's reported that Americans would spend $8.4 billion on candy and costumes and I can't help but think that much of that money could be spent [Music] [Music] better a new well a drop of water on the

scale of Mala but a river in the hearts of The Men Who work to make this happen for the first time in their lives the children are permitted to play with water a perfectly clear water they've never seen before that gushes forth in [Music] profusion the water coming to the surface is so precious that they quickly install buckets all around so as not to waste a drop that's good yes that's good thank you after having carried hundreds upon hundreds of buckets throughout her life Margaret is tired now the water is flowing in abundance it's an

immense relief I'm so glad now we can have as much water as we like because the well is so close right next door to my home after this first successful well the drilling team is waiting the inhabitants of South Fury Longway have also decided to build a stretch of [Music] road if they want their lives to change they'll have to open a tricky access into the bush for more than 300 M then the drill can continue on its way and reach the village where yasinta John and their children [Music] live once again men are ready

to pitch it and carve the necessary stretch of road out of the forest all the villagers johned first among them hope that their efforts will not be in vain we're very happy with the idea of having water we're building this road to have a chance of getting a well because we've been struggling with water problems for ages driven by the fierce desire to have access to drinking water they spare no effort and put their hearts into building this new Road the drilling truck will soon be able to access this Zone and here too it won't

go [Music] unno did you see how the children ran away when the cars arrived that's because they'd never seen them before when you came my children ran home and asked ma'am what's that I said that's a car it's the first time for them because we have no roads [Music] [Music] just hoping to spend the next few days here finishing up which has been a long project to get water out here so we're kind of excited about this new beginning here at asa's house she just lives not too far away and this will be great because

there's a lot of people that would really benefit we look around here there's houses we walk through a little Main Street of town as soon as they arrive the Drillers return to work there's no time to lose like many women Yad de lays her chores so as to watch the drilling progress Our Lives will change we'll drink clean water that'll change everything we'll no longer have diarrhea our children will be happy and in good health because they suffer from drinking dirty water when we have the well they'll be healthy and be able to go to

school [Music] a 2-hour walk from Yas along the main trail lies a village accessible by Road maloya has already had drinking water for several years aside from quenching The Thirst a well provides the locals with much better sanitary conditions and [Music] hygiene in Malawi 45% of the population is under 14 despite the distance to be covered the school in maloya is beneficial for the children who manage to attend left right left right [Music] school teacher Edith kingu who has been here for 3 years is a city dweller who comes from the north of the country

for her educating the children of maloya is a daily test a lot of children here are suffering just because they lacking water because they walk long distances fing for water some are coming here to school without even not taking a bath yeah that's the main Challenge and even their parents are walking long distances looking for water yeah that's a big challenge here innocent sella the head teacher is powerless in the face of his pupils poverty we do have a lot of children that drop out of school because of lack of social things we have a

lot of vulnerable children in our area that do not even go to school they feel they are not looking like their friends who are are well to do in their families are looking like so they just drop alone yet during the day the school offers children a guarantee of drinking water and toilets access to essential hygiene but dozens of children aren't lucky enough to go to school near Ying's house the drilling continues closely watched by the residents and by operatives who have been working in shifts through the day bringing sand up from the depth has

become a ritual but for now there's still no trace of water [Music] it all happens at this depth beyond that there is no hope 40 m is the maximum for a good well here we've dugged down to 50 m without finding the slightest sound of water we can't be seen to be tired because this is what we do we're here to install a well before we go home we were so glad when the drill came because it meant that soon we'd have clean water close by we won't be discouraged do everything you can to look

everywhere to find us drinking water Kurt and his team announced the bad news but giving up is out of the question so he's very much sure that after some investigation some suring water will be found yeah a few days after the dig the finishing around the first well has been completed all the women can finally benefit from it for Margaret who home is 100 m from the well fetching water from a water hole is now a distant memory all of this was Forest it was forest and nobody lived here my husband and I were among

the first to settle here there was no water so we had to fetch it from the mountain sometimes we were chased by monkeys and had to leave our buckets where they were we had to go back to the village and ask the men to accompany us to the water hole while the women took the water the men would hunt the monkeys when we left the monkeys came back to drink from the same hole but now it's all different now life is easier here but that's not the case for all the inhabitants of the fury Longway

mountains you're doing your best but we don't know why it won't work I'm really sad for our friends who live over [Music] there fore [Music] [Music] [Music] day after day the drilling continues without success a dry well that is closed is like a gash in the hearts of the inhabitants [Music] after such a setback feeling very very sad and heartbroken for the people that are suffering out here motiv Mo ated us to call in a 20year expert here Mike so we're going to look at a couple different areas but when Edwin and I drove by

here we thought this is a promising location because it has some topography it looks like there could be a fault line here where water can find access through Rock So this particular machine is looking for soft areas that would contain Waters [Music] now the hopes of an entire Community rest squarely on the shoulders of Michael chilung hydrogeologist yet he can't claim with certainty the presence of water at less than 50 m for at that depth it becomes too difficult to pump the water manually when we are looking for water we don't normally see water as

you can see it in the glass or in any cup we only read the so information [Music] the field studies continue throughout the day in a search for the best place to dig another Well despite a few dry attempts at drilling the inhabitants of South FY Longway are not giving up [Music] tell me what I I can expect here yeah you you uh we expect to get water from 25 to 40 m so where is that show me on here how it it's it's here this one yeah we've said everybody these roads that you're building

yeah are roads for the Future these are roads of Vision Health Community Development ex child education everything depends on clean sustainable water yes so we've called you out here we were desperate here to get water in we know that it's going to rain soon and we've heard it's been raining everywhere except here except at least should come after we have done our job that's it armed with his new field study Mike has opted for a spot close to dried up riverbed more and more of the locals monitor the drilling [Music] the sky is darkening the

air is saturated with moisture as thousands of insects emerge from the soil the hope of seeing water gush forth is dwindling by the hour yet yet men will dig until dusk failure once again in the morning the drilling team knows its time is running out they must quickly find water for this community it's already November and the coming rainy season will wipe out any last hopes we know that you've worked so hard on the road to be able to get this drilling rig here and it makes me so sad to see this come up dry

so we'll keep working we just have such expectation for these little kids these people so we're going to we're going to do something about it we're going to make it happen that's our [Music] commitment we're like prisoners they have to use dirty water like us there's no difference that's what we're faced with when I was young I didn't expect to one day face these problems this is how we live here for yint family life goes on John knows that soon violent storms will come to protect his family he has only some plastic sheeting and some

hay bales though the arrival of the range is good news as it will irrigate the fields it is also the bringer of deadly epidemics when it runs through the holes where the women fetch water the rain carries millions of bacteria many people suffer from diara I lost one of my sisters because she drank water that wasn't drinkable she caught chera and died unfortunately CH epidemics aren't the only threats linked to the lack of drinking water and the coming of the rains go on go home dentry tifo nobody is spared the mortality rate in Malawi is

still very high and the first victims are children the very thing the workers feared has happened trapped by the mud the truck is stuck drilling has stopped in just a few hours torrential rain cuts off all [Music] access devastated Kurt must make a decision we're just heartbroken for yinta in her village where they're still getting water out of that pit with 30 or 40 frogs and so it's not the end that we wanted for you s please carry on helping us we beg you please do not abandon us and perhaps God will hear our prayers

we're not asking for much but please don't leave us without water carry taking advantage of the L the team has decided to leave Fury Longway via maloya but the Relentless demands of the locals have got through to kurd and his team perhaps one last Dell is possible unfortunately the drilling rig can't cross the Ravine in the trail [Music] once again the men of Fury Longway will take their Destiny in their hands and join forces to rebuild the road we have major problems getting around because of the rivers there are no Bridges when the water level

in the rivers is high people die because they can't cross to go to the hospital [Music] [Music] all the inhabitants know that this attempt at drilling is their last chance because of the presence of this mountain there's like an underground bed of rocks over almost all this region it's very difficult for the Drillers that's why they haven't found water [Music] in fact we almost gave up that uh since we have been having so many attempts of been Drilling and uh we said okay let me risk one more chance so today just started Drilling and right

now there's plenty of water at [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] last foree spe [Music] we were used to drinking that water just imagine with this rain all the germs that are here I won't come to this place to fetch water anymore now we have a well and we no longer need to come here we are so happy to have this well [Music] that's it now I can look after my crops do my chores start a business new vendors have moved into the market in maloya for the first time in their lives yasinta and her friend elube

have something to sell at the market backs to the well water they can cook fritters and earn their little money for food clothing and finally build their road to a better future there's two great problems in Malo the first one's water second one's roads and so whenever we can encourage people themselves to build their roads uh we're doing that and we saw the indication here that they're quite willing and ready to to take matters into their own hands which we really like about the malawian people the [Music]