Clean water project Ambatolava Madagascar

Organisation: Madagascar Development Fund
Location: Ambatolava, Madagascar
Project: Clean Water Project

The majority of people in this particularly deprived farming community live in harsh and primitive conditions and make their living from agriculture and cattle raising. The country is one of the poorest on earth. 75% of the population of 20 million live in extreme poverty on an income of less than one US dollar a day.

The Village Head explained that having easy access to safe, clean water would be a dream comes true,  not only for the villagers but also for 95 young children who attend the local primary school and who do not currently have access to water either to drink or for hand washing after they visit the school latrine.

The project involved building and installing a catchment tank and storage tank for this gravity fed system, which flows down to six standpipes in the village from the source 1.5km above.

The work was carried out smoothly, on budget and without difficulty and the population honoured its commitment to supply locally available building materials and unskilled labour - as their contribution to the project.   

The new water system has transformed the lives of the population of Ambatolava – relieving the women and children in  particular of the exhausting task of carrying heavy buckets of water a considerable distance several times each day.  The villagers are greatly looking forward to celebrating during the inauguration – which will take place later this year during the dry season.