Madagascar: Access to water is evolving slowly

Ensuring access to water for all is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6) to be achieved by 2030. Madagascar is still far from reaching this goal.

Access to safe water service at the national level is evolving at a very slow pace. The access rate has increased from 37% in 2001 to 51% in 2017, and to 53% in 2020, according to the Joint WHO/UNICEF Monitoring Program on Water Supply and Sanitation. This water access rate has increased to 54.5% at the national level, according to the declaration made during World Water Day, celebrated in Morondava yesterday.

“The main flaw lies in the poor management of existing infrastructure, whether in urban or rural areas. Several studies have been conducted, but there has been no implementation. Water resources are only a problem in southern Madagascar,” explains a hydraulic engineer.

Several drinking water supply infrastructure have been set up at the community level with the support of partners of the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. Unfortunately, most of these infrastructures are no longer operational a few years after their installation. Others fall into ruin. “There is nothing left of the drinking water supply infrastructure set up in our municipality in the 1990s,” says a former chief of fokontany in the Avaradrano district. This source highlighted the lack of maintenance on one hand and the looting of infrastructure on the other. “The pipes were stolen little by little,” the source continues.

Although statistics indicate an improvement in access to water services, the realities compel users to talk about regression, especially in urban areas. The water supply problem becomes recurrent in the capital. “We have Jirama water installations at home, but they no longer work,” says a resident of Ampitatafika.

Source of conflicts

“Water for peace” was the theme of this year’s World Water Day celebration. But in the face of disruptions to water supply, especially in the capital, water becomes a source of conflict. Residents have protested several times against this issue. These protests may recur. The disruption of water supply persists with the aging infrastructure of Jirama’s water distribution, exacerbated by water shortages during the dry season.

Miangaly Ralitera