President Marc Ravalomanana of Madagascar was the only president in the world who attended the 2008 World Water Week held in Stockholm, Sweden. At the opening session he said that he had set the sanitation and safe drinking water problem as top priorities in his country.

The first initiative of the president has been to establish a Ministry for Water and Sanitation which will focus solely on drinking water, water resource management and environmental sanitation. Before these were shared by the Ministries of Health and Energy. “This will provide clear leadership, strategy and resources,” said the President.“There is not one exclusive situation in Madagascar, at least there are 1500 very different situations. For instance, the situation in the driest areas in the southern part of Madagascar is very different from the situation in the most humid rainy areas in the vanilla region, in the East of Madagascar,” said the president. The country does not have any modern water supply facilities.

According to a national plan called MAP, the target to ensure safe access to drinking water for 65% of the population and good sanitation facilities for 71% of the population is set for the year 2012.

Madagascar is one of the first pilot countries to benefit from the Global Sanitation Fund.

Related web site: WSSCC - Madagascar

Source: Xuefei Chen, People’s Daily Online, 20 Aug 2008

Tags: africa, governance, policies & legislation, sanitation, water supply