Madagascar

East Africa and Southern Africa are filled with dry, arid terrain. These areas are home to millions of people. These people are also some of the most vulnerable to water shortages. Accessing clean water—which is necessary to sustain Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) standards—is particularly important for children. Without clean water,…

The southern regions of Madagascar have the country’s lowest water supply coverage and is highly vulnerable to drought. Access to potable drinking water us a major challenge for the local population. Chronic droughts lead to annual emergency appeals to save the lives of acute malnourished children. Yet the root cause of this situation is the…, A new approach to locating safe water, UNICEF Madagascar explored the use of new scientific solutions to locate deep primary water resources formed by the accumulation of water vapor in the Earth’s lower mantle. This has never been explored before in UNICEF WASH programmes, as deposits are at a considerable depth and are inaccessible by traditional water exploration methods. Their…, Testing on the ground, UNICEF implemented this innovative pilot project from October 2017 to December 2018. The geophysics study was conducted in two phases, fracture trace analysis and field survey, in the Androy region. Results revealed many fractures with a potential of water accumulation. From this, two pilot sites were identified for the drilling of deep boreholes…, Key outcomes and next steps, Although no water was retrieved from the two pilots, this new approach confirmed the main constraints encountered in the south of Madagascar in terms of water scarcity and high salinity. In addition, the methodological approach used in this study has proven the feasibility and applicability to explore deep groundwater in fractured bedrocks of…