The year is 1400, near the end of the Middle Ages. Paris was one of Europe’s largest cities, with a population of 200,000. The city lived in isolation within the walls of Charles V. Streets were narrow, dark, and muddy, with multi-story wooden houses blocking out sunlight. The Seine served as an open sewer.
Living conditions were unbearable. There was no sanitation service, no public water fountains, no trash bins, and no public latrines. Everything—human waste, animal carcasses, butcher blood, and tannery runoff—was dumped into the Seine, which everyone also drank from. Groundwater was contaminated by the few existing cesspools.
On the streets, one had to be vigilant to avoid the contents of chamber pots thrown from windows each morning. The air was unbreathable, filled with a pestilential stench. Respiratory diseases were inevitable.
Six centuries later, Antananarivo and other major cities find themselves in the same situation. The problems facing municipal authorities are identical: an uneducated population lacking hygiene awareness, insufficient trash bins, neighborhoods without latrines, running water as a luxury, and erratic electricity. The Andriantany Canal is no different from the Seine of that era, clogged with waste and plastic. Despite municipal cleaning efforts, it remains blocked.
Diseases caused by filth and non-potable water are rampant. Currently, the city is attempting to sanitize the rainwater and sewage drainage systems, but these efforts are constantly hindered by the indifference or ignorance of a population resulting from poorly managed rural-to-urban migration. People from the countryside lack urban living skills and disregard rules, making the enforcement of the Municipal Hygiene Code a Herculean task for the Urban Commune of Antananarivo (CUA). Paris was not built in a day; perhaps we must wait six centuries. No less.
Captured & Published at: 2026-09-29 05:38:58 (Madagascar Local Time EAT)
Original Source: https://www.lexpress.mg/2026/09/similitude.html