Almost all rural areas in Madagascar suffer from the lack of drinking water. The people get their water from rivers or in unsanitary traditional sources, infected by fecal bacteria and parasites, and most of the time, away from residential areas or schools. This water, accessible to humans as herds and often stagnant, is prone to contamination, especially during the rainy season. It becomes a source of diarrhoeal and parasitic diseases and it is the children who suffer most.
In 2003, Ny Tanintsika – Feedback Madagascar initiated with Fresh2o, the distribution of water filters project. The primary objective is to reduce the mortality rate and child infection in the districts of Ambalavao and Ikongo, targeting the most vulnerable families and schools built with the help of Ny Tanintsika.
We are now expanding our work also involved with schoolchildren working with Ny Tanintsika. Filters are distributed at the Government Primary Schools, Colleges of General and Teaching in High Schools, and in parallel we spread the messages of the WASH campaign to educate school children and their parents to adopt good hygiene practices. 155 filters have been distributed in March 2016, and we hope to largely increase this number in the future.
