On Saturday, June 15, Andry Rajoeilina listed a series of major projects to be implemented primarily for the development of the Anosy and Androy regions. Two disaster-based, framed regions that regularly experience drought and severe malnutrition.
“It is a solemn promise that I will make to get the great south out of poverty,” the President of Madagascar declared last Saturday at the end of the regional conference on the growth of the great south of Madagascar, in Fort Dauphin in the south. of the Big Island.
The project is ambitious. In particular with the construction of a pipeline to bring water to this arid region. Or the construction of a factory to pack drinking water and supply 60,000 people every day. 700 km of roads must also be rehabilitated. In terms of energy, “every district will benefit from a solar park,” the president of Madagascar promises. And to combat chronic malnutrition, a health center with a food bank must also be created. For security, there will also be new military bases. For young people, sports arenas. And to combat climate change: reforestation, with the Green Belt project.
“Project Cemetery”
President Andry Rajoelina promises something concrete and fast in the face of an emergency. But this Great South Emergency Plan is only partially funded. And in the region, many development promises have already been made over the years without success. The southern part of the Big Island is also known as a “project cemetery”.
At present, however, these two regions are in a critical condition in food insecurity. This year, two out of five people, or 1.13 million people, are seriously food safe according to the World Food Program. For Bérengère Guais, Deputy Head of Emergency Situations at MSF, who is currently in Ambovombe, the capital of Androy, the humanitarian situation there is very serious.
MADAGASCAR _HIS EVENING – Risk of famine in the south: HIS testimony
After droughts that have been repeated for more than three years, we are in some villages where people have absolutely nothing to eat. There is little opportunity to cultivate and harvest. We have observed children who are completely emaciated, who are in a state of acute, severe or moderate malnutrition, and we can talk about famine in some places, we are facing a population that is completely tired, who has to walk for hours and hours , to access a health center. We are in a region where means of transport are almost non-existent. There is a great deal of access to water that is very, very complicated, because we are really in an area that is extremely dry and extremely dry. The rivers that exist are completely dried up and no longer allow the population to get clean, drinking water. So this is a situation that is extremely complicated for the population.
►Also listen: Madagascar: return to Ankilimarovahatsy, where famine killed 9 inhabitants between June and August (Report Africa 1/4, series on the drought in Madagscar)
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