TH!NK post
In the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty…
Published 22nd October 2010 - 2 comments - 1906 views -
The rising temperatures combined with climate change is likely to create an environment of increasingly dry across the entire globe over the next thirty years. Water is a cross-cutting issue with poverty, health, exposition to the risks of water-related disasters, environmental degradation, political instability and conflict, and asserts that population growth; increasing consumption and climate change are among the factors that threaten to exacerbate these problems, with grave implications for human security and development.
Photo: River running dry due to climate change
In Madagascar , 41 percent of the Malagasy population has access to drinking water in 2010, compared with 47 percent in 2008, according to the United Nations System in Antananarivo. The report was released to mark the UN week of water in the Indian Ocean island country.
Only 14 percent of the rural population has access to safe drinking water and this figure drops to zero in many isolated villages. Although many rural areas in Madagascar contain sources of water stored in naturally occurring, shallow, sandy aquifers, local communities lacked the means to tap into this groundwater.
Photo: Young man collecting water : Madagascar
In 2008, when the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was launched, Madagascar committed to provide drinking water to 9 millions people and sanitation to 14 millions by 2015. The country also promised to set up 4,800 water points between 2008 and 2015 for 1.5 million users. Unfortunately, we know officially today that the country would not reach this goal because of the political crisis in the country since December 2008. The UN system doubts that the MDGs will be difficult to achieve by Madagascar despite efforts.
Photo: Fetching Water in the town of Ambalavao
Investments for basic human water is needed more than ever in Madagascar : drinking water supply, sanitation and health, food security, mitigation of floods and droughts etc are issues addressed in the UN Millennium Development Goals... and should be at the centre of the meeting at United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun Mexico .
Flickr Photo Courtesy of Andriankoto Harinjaka Ratozamanana, September 2010, Town of Ambalavao, southern of MADAGASCAR.
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About the author
Antananarivo, MADAGASCAR
Cyber activist, eco-entrepreneur, citizen journalist
Harinjaka Andriankoto RATOZAMANANA is a blogger, Observer, TH!NKer and Successful entrepreneur based in Antananarivo. In 2007 his work caught the attention of senior management at TED.com (Technology, Entertainment and Design) which offered him a global fellowship recognizing his role as “...an outstanding young developing world leader who has demonstrated outstanding achievement and potential...” (see “Fellows” at www.ted.com). Presently Harinjaka works on different projects that combines social goals, conservation, and for-profit objectives in Madagascar. As a stringer for France 24, he covers breaking news events in sub-Saharan Africa. He is also part of www.vakanala.org team. A Malagasy non profit organisation, with technologists and local development specialists in reaction to the obvious urgent need to preserve biodiversity hotspots in Madagascar and to engage in local development. http://www.vakanala.org/en/donate
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Hello Adriankoto,
What do you think is the main problem - money? Corruption? Lack of will? All of them? And why were the MDGs in Madagascar launched only in 2008?
Hi Giedre,
Thank you for your comment. The main problem here is a lack of political will to find a long term solution(my opinion). That drought in the southern part of Madagascar, where the people, who are among the poorest in the country, was repeatedly happen since several years . Making the population, who are among the poorest, in extremely vulnerable to any new shocks http://bit.ly/6C6zm ...it seems like it is is an excuse for our politicians to ask regularly for foreign aids.
As for mentionning 2008 as the launch of the MDGs, I took that from my “chinese” source http://bit.ly/9rqzOv but I think that Madagascar have signed the MDGs in the same time with the 191 UN members states.Corrected.