Sanitation in Madagascar
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| A new toilet block in Madagascar |
| Credit: WaterAid / Bret Stirton |
A new project aiming to develop sustainable solutions to the sanitation and water problems of two towns in Madagascar has been set up with the support of New Statesman magazine.
WaterAid, together with local partner organisation Freres St Gabriel, has begun work in Fénerive Est and Vavatenina towns, in the Analanjirofo region of Madagascar.
Both were identified as being particularly vulnerable to the problems of unsafe water and poor sanitation; currently less than nine per cent of people living in the area have access to a clean water source or safe sanitation. Death and disease is compounded by poor hygiene practices.
The project will improve the community's access to safe water and safe toilets, and encourage improved hygiene behaviour. At the same time, efforts will be made to build up true community capacity to ensure a long term, sustainable solution.
It is anticipated the project will help 1,800 people gain access to clean water and 1,200 gain access to safe toilets by March 2007.
Project plan
The work aims to deliver the following outcomes:
- Six tap stands
- Capacity building in management of water points to enable the communities to maintain them over time
- Water quality testing
- Construction of 200 hygienic family latrines
- Information, education and communication activities
- Capacity building to develop local people's voices so that they can lobby their governments and leaders
- Specific support to local authorities to advocate the need for improvement of water sources in Fenerive Est
- Building on the existing legal framework for the water and sanitation sector
WaterAid in Madagascar
- WaterAid opened an office in the capital Antananarivo and was officially registered as an international NGO in the country in 1999. Our work has quickly developed and we now have projects in four of Madagascar's six provinces, in both rural and urban areas.
- WaterAid is the only international NGO in Madagascar working exclusively in water and sanitation. We are now also researching the economic and social costs of the lack of sanitation and are helping the Madagascan government develop a national sanitation policy.
- WaterAid works with six main partner organisations in Madagascar. These are local NGOs with a minimum of 12 years experience in providing water supplies, through both gravity-fed schemes, well construction and tap stands. We have helped these partners build their capacity.
- WaterAid is also forming links and networks with organisations that have similar aims across the country, to feed into wider policy debates, and is the executive secretariat to the national water and sanitation platform. We are raising awareness about the need for integrated projects so that hygiene education and sanitation are seen as being equal in importance to safe water.
- Find out more about our work in Madagascar
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