Tapia forests and water supply projects in Madagascar gets a boost
A project to conserve Madagascar's tapia
forests and revive its wild silkworms, is one of the two Malagasy entries which
have won funding in the World Bank's 2005 Development Marketplace Competition.
Ny Tanintsika ('our land'), a Malagasy NGO working in land management and
community development issues, is to receive about US $110,000 to reforest the
Tapia woods, which cover roughly 50,000 ha in the Amoron'i Mania region of
southeastern Madagascar. Tapia trees (Uapaca bojeri) are known locally for their
edible fruit and as the habitat of the wild Malagasy silkworm.
Tapia trees, which serve as the primary protector against erosion in the
area, are being cut down to grow subsistence food crops and graze cattle, while
the excessive collection of wild silk and the consumption of silkworm chrysalids
had almost completely wiped out the species, said Ny Tanintsika.
The projects, which will function in tandem, expect to cover 1,000 ha of
forest and contribute to the annual reforestation of 10 ha with tapia trees. The
community will also be trained to breed wild silkworms and market the produced
silk.
Over 14,000 villagers and 150 silk weavers are expected to participate, which
could increase their incomes by 40 percent.
Another NGO, Bush Proof, will receive $150,000 to provide clean water to
rural and coastal areas by rapidly constructing jetted wells with hand pumps.
This method of well drilling involves the use of a high-velocity stream of fluid
to cut a hole in the ground and transport the loosened material out of the hole.
The NGO hopes to reach all the coastal areas of Madagascar, helping it to
achieve the Millennium Development Goal for access to safe drinking water. Only
14 percent of Madagascar's population in rural areas has access to drinking
water.
Many of these rural areas contain naturally occurring, shallow, sandy
aquifers that are sources of soft water, but the local communities lack the
means of tapping it. With a combination of two low-cost technologies - well
jetting and the Canzee hand pump, which draws water out of the well - the Bush
Proof project expects to provide drinking water to more than 15,000 villagers,
with the potential of scaling it up to reach one million people.
The team expects to construct 150 wells in seven months to prove that a large
number of wells can be drilled very rapidly, and use the natural sand filtration
of the process to clean the water, avoiding the use of costly disinfectant
chemicals. The NGO also intends to manufacture the pump locally, to make it
available widely at low cost.
Thirty-one environmental entrepreneurs from around the world won nearly $4
million for their projects from the World Bank. -IRIN
More information:
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Copyright (©) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2005]
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