9
northern boundary of the basin to where
rainfall is, if not plentiful, adequate. Three
communes suffer from water scarcity, and
have coping mechanisms that may be
inadequate, but function well enough that
food, access to markets, or education are of
a higher concern. For 12 of the 17
communes, the majority of the district’s
population, water dominates daily concerns,
household labor, and the local economy.
The hyphenation in Ambovombe-
Androy comes from its distinct ethnic
identity. Tandroy is one of Madagascar’s 18
ethnic groups and Ambovombe is the capital
of Androy. Amboasary-Sud district to the
east is predominantly of Tanosy ethnicity
and there is modest social tension between
the two groups for both historic and
resource-based reasons.
The Tandroy people have long lived
with water shortage. The word “Antandroy”
itself means “people of the thorns” in clear
reference to the Spiny Forest in which most
of the population lives. There are western
accounts of water concerns dating back to
Etienne de Flacourt 400 years ago (with
more notable descriptions at the onset of the
French colonial period). The problem is,
however, significantly magnified. When the
United Nations Committee on Economics,
Social, and Cultural Rights advanced that
water is a human right, it cited World Health
Organization statistics with a minimum of
20 liters. In other debates the figure has
climbed as high as 50 liters. When the
people of Ambovombe claim they have
decreasing
water access
their concerns
tend towards
two buckets per
day per
household --
about 5 liters
per person
(1/100
th
of
average U.S.
water
consumption).
Part of the
decline in water
availability has to do with climatic shifts
that have led to a decrease in rainfall. The
country as a whole is expected to see water
availability decrease by nearly two-thirds by
2025 and has already entered into water
stress. Madagascar has suffered along with
East Africa in El Niño-Southern Oscillation
effects and, since 1968, there have been
decreases in rainfall (UNEP 2002).
The larger concern, however, is the
dramatic population growth. Madagascar as
a whole has a population growth rate of 2.8
percent. But, the cultural value and social
status based on family in Androy, and the
value of sons for herding, buoys a growth
rate significantly higher than the national
average.
Water in Madagascar is historically
the responsibility of the Department of
Water within the Ministry of Energy and
Mines. The 1980s saw a seesaw imbalance
between market incentives and wanting
water resource infrastructure. This led to the
regularized need of World Food Program
(WFP) intervention. This forced the
Malagasy state to recognize the extremity of
the water crisis in the south and it created
the Alimentation en Eau dans le Sud (AES).
The AES operates exclusively in the south
of the country, operating parallel to the
Department of Water within the ministry. It
was created by presidential décret 86-241 in
August 1986 with the idea of organizing
statutes for water management in the south.
It is the only public water supply interest in
the region. It has an operating budget of
2.48 billion FMG
($US 388 mill).
There is no
provision in the
AES budget for
investment.
Ambovombe
town, home to
about 46,000
people, is the
dusty district
capital. There are
a small number of
water harvesting
facilities and
Figure 1: Buying water in Ambovombe town.
Convention