2
Ambovombe-Androy is a poor district
in Southern Madagascar. “Poor” is too
generic. For eight months out of the year
there is no water. No water for agriculture.
No water for drinking. As a result, the usual
impediments to development are rarely
discussed. When there is no water all other
activities lose meaning. As a result,
Ambovombe-Androy is a district at the
margins of an oft marginalized country. The
question is what is being done about it.
National policies are consistent with
international norms that support Integrated
Water Resource Management. Thus the role
of the national government is diminishing in
favor of civic group resource management at
the local (community) level. This sort of
decentralization is intended to empower the
local population to improve accountability,
civic engagement, and equity. After all, who
is more likely to make decisions in favor of
their own water needs than the end users
themselves? It is an innately participatory
action that is consistent with the deepening of
democratic norms.
2
Unfortunately for the
case of Ambovombe, “local empowerment”
quickly translates to “you’re on your own.”
“Decentralization” quickly translates into
state disengagement. To avoid this, a finer
relationship between state and local
institutional relationships and responsibilities
needs to be explored.
Traveling west on Route Nationale
(RN) 13 from the southern port city of
Tolagnaro starts with a visual feast. More
than 1500 mm of rainfall each year brings
lushness to the area as the lowland rice
paddies blend towards the 4000 ha of humid
forest. Warm, humid winds engulf the region.
After about 30 km the road begins to wind up
into the Anosy mountains. The mountains
2
In 2004 USAID/Madagascar has redesigned its
programs (interviews by the author with USAID
staff in May 2004). While water is not a focal
point, natural resource management in general is.
After years of parallel programming, environment
and rural development objectives have folded into
one project and begun efforts to cooperate with the
Democracy and Governance objective as both are
looking to create participatory organizations
parallel to the commune-level government.
provide an orographic effect, effectively
blocking the ocean winds and creating a
microclimate. Looking east of the mountains
the humid zone is dotted with what remains of
primary rainforest. Descending down the
westbound road into the Amboasary-Sud
district, rainfall averages drop to 600 mm per
year and the flora begins transitioning. The
forest becomes a deciduous dry forest. Wet
rice paddies give way to commercial sisal
farming. By the time the road reaches the
town of Amboasary, only 70 km from
Tolagnaro, the duration of the starving season
increases from 2-3 months to 4 months. The
levels of development decrease two fold and
the level of marginalization increases.
3
The
saving grace for Amboasary is the Mandrare
River. While irrigation infrastructure is
limited, its banks and alluvial region have
ensured that domestic water needs are met for
the 172,000 inhabitants of the district and that
70 percent of the population remains in the
agricultural sector (see map, Appendix A).
We continue west on RN 13, crossing
the Mandrare’s ailing steel bridge. The
volcanic ridge delves into a hydrologically
closed basin as we enter Ambovombe-Androy
district. Rainfall averages drop by half in the
36 km it takes to reach the district capital of
Ambovombe. The forest is gone and in its
place unconsolidated sandy soils give rise to
the beginning of the unforgiving Spiny Forest
ecosystem. The percent of the population
engaged in agriculture drops 20 percent. Rice
cultivation is replaced by manioc and sweet
potato. Irrigation infrastructure (generally for
rice and manioc) drops from 49 percent of
farms in Amboasary to zero in all but one
Ambovombe commune. Survival is based on
the management of 14,000 heads of cattle
spread out among the 302,000 people.
Subtracting the approximately 3000 heads of
cattle that suffer from various illnesses, this
3
Data from the 2001 ILO census project
(http://www.ilo.cornell.edu), joint conducted by
Cornell University and Pact International, is used
here. Ilo used an index with a 1 to 6 score to
indicate levels of development. Tolagnaro
communes varied, but commonly ranked a 2 or 3.
Amboasary communes commonly ranked a 5.
Convention