A man cuts a cistern into a Za Baobab (Adansonia za), which will be filled with water collected after the rains. The tree is one of the six species of baobab native to Madagascar.

In this very dry region where it rains only a few times, if at all, each year, the local population cut out holes in Za Baobab trees to make cisterns which are filled with rain water for use during the June to December dry season. A cistern can hold several thousand litres of water and while each tank belongs to a single family the water it contains is available to any passerby.