Madagascar Loses Shs419 Billion Due to Lack of Latrines – World Bank

Rivonala Razafison

30 July 2011

Antananarivo — Madagascar still falls below the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target in sanitation, a new report says. According to the report by the World Bank, defecation in the open costs the country an annual loss estimated at $174.5 million (about Shs419b).

The World Bank study highlighted that each individual who did not have access to sanitation facilities wasted 2.5 days annually, looking for places to relieve themselves.

Over 6.6 million inhabitants – nearly one-third of the population, did not have toilets according to Mr Lovy Hervet Rasolofomanana of WaterAid Madagascar.

Government data showed 41 per cent of the population had access to safe water and only 15 per cent had adequate sanitation facilities.

Almost 88 per cent of deaths, due to diarrhoea, were attributable to poor sanitation exacerbated by lack of safe water and poor hygiene.

Poor households diarrhoea has been identified as the second leading killer among children under five in the country, behind malaria.

Nearly 3.5 million school days per year were wasted because of illnesses linked to poor sanitation. This absenteeism, resulted in the high school dropout rate, with six out of every 10 children not completing their primary level education.

Plans in place

The government and other stakeholders have been planning to create 6,000 new water facilities and 27,000 latrines for poor households to boost sanitation, but this had not taken effect, courtesy of the political crisis.

“The implementation has been delayed because of the political crisis. National coverage of sanitation should reach the rate of 54 per cent by 2015,” Dr Alain Randriamaherisoa, who is the country’s Director General of water, said.

Culture also played a part in the poor sanitation. For some Malagasy communities, using a toilet was a taboo.

AllAfrica – All the Time