Madagascar: ILLEGAL EARTHWORK – Trucks caught in the act taken to impound

Monitoring of fill dirt intensifies. A task force is operational.

Unyielding. Four trucks have been impounded in the municipal police park at Anosipatrana since Tuesday night. The Directorate of Transport and Urban Mobility at the Urban Commune of Antananarivo (CUA) caught them red-handed, illegally filling a site in Ambilanibe Andavamamba. “After the searches, it was found that they did not have permission for this fill,” CUA reported. The truck drivers claimed they were carrying out a government project, filling the relocation site of residents living along Canal C3. “That’s what they say. But upon verification, it is the land next to this relocation site that they filled. It should be noted that if they were impounded, it’s because they had already received a warning before,” a source from the Authority for Flood Protection in the Antananarivo Plain (Apipa) said.

Approved Projects

Since January, a task force led by the Ministry of Decentralization and Land Planning has been set up to monitor illegal fill operations. “So far, thirty fills have been suspended and nineteen trucks have been impounded. Other fill transporters were fined on Tuesday. They will be penalized if they continue,” a source from Apipa said. It is reminded that filling is subject to a fine of at least 5 million ariary, depending on the area filled.

Filling work in Greater Tanà has been suspended since February 2022, due to the risk of flooding looming over Antananarivo during the rainy season, because of “wild” fills. Only projects approved in the Council of Ministers are allowed. This has not stopped illegal operations. Several rice fields are being filled in the city of Antananarivo and in the municipalities of Ambohimangakely, Alasora, Ambohijanaka, among others. If these fills continue, there are certainly individuals responsible giving their approval. So far, they have not been unmasked. Maybe not for much longer? One source confirms that investigations are underway and that former high-level institutional officials are being questioned in these cases of illegal fills.

Miangaly Ralitera