Madagascar > Programme description
1. How long has Medair been in the country?
Medair has been in Madagascar since 2001, first implementing a water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) project in the south, in the Fort-Dauphin region. During this period, Medair also began to respond to the consequences of cyclones, a major one being Cyclone Gafilo in 2004, where we provided an emergency response to help re-establish access to clean water in the most affected villages.
In January 2006, after completing four years of activities in the south, Medair established a new base in Maroantsetra, an area in the northeast of the country that is especially vulnerable to cyclones and floods.
2. What is Medair doing in the country?
Improving access to water
Medair specialises in improving water and sanitation and in capacity building of the local actors in rural areas. Our expertise is particularly beneficial when dealing with the ongoing threats of cyclone emergencies: assisting with mitigation (how to prepare for and protect against cyclone damage); emergency response (how to re-establish access to clean water); and recovery (how to improve situations when rebuilding after a cyclone has hit).
In Madagascar, Medair’s activities link emergency relief and rehabilitation. If a cyclone strikes, we are prepared to respond in any part of the island to re-establish access to clean water. In parallel, we run disaster-risk-reduction activities, with special focus on making long-lasting improvements to clean water accessibility along with better cyclone preparedness and mitigation for the poorest rural communities.
The lack of knowledge about basic hygiene has a serious effect on the health of the population. Hygiene promotion, clean water points, latrine construction, and coaching of local communities in relation to disaster risk reduction are the main activities of Medair during the year.
There is also a strong focus on capacity building for the communities, local authorities, and local contractors. Helping communities help themselves is the key to Medair’s activities.
3. Where are we working?
Maroantsetra
In this district, Medair is focused on capacity building, hygiene promotion, and water & sanitation construction in this northeast.
The situation in Maroantsetra is very precarious. The district does not have enough safe water points for its 200,000 inhabitants. Most of the population relies on contaminated river water. Even the families using open wells are not safe, because most of the wells are contaminated by faecal matters, due to inappropriate usage and poor construction. Only the sealed wells with hand pumps constructed by Medair ensure access to clean water.
Fénérive-Est
In this district, Medair is supporting the local partner NGO FSG to implement a similar WatSan project to the one we are doing in Maroantsetra District. This will enable the project impact to be enlarged and the transfer of capacity to local actors to be multiplied. Both districts are in the Analanjiroffo administration region.
The situation in Fénérive-Est, home to 260,000 inhabitants, is similar to the needs in the Maroantsetra District, with very minimal access to clean water and high vulnerability to cyclones.
4. How many people are working for Medair in Madagascar?
Medair employs eight internationally recruited staff (IRS) and 77 nationally recruited staff (NRS) in Madagascar.