Sustainable management of Eflows for west coast rivers of Madagascar: a case of Betsiboka River
To promote the sustainable management of the river basins in the west coast of Madagascar in roder to maintain a healthy flow and reduce sediment load to minimize detrimental impacts on coastal ecosystems
Specific Objectives of Project:
Objective 1: To increase awareness on environmental flow assessments (EFA) and sustainable practices for reduced sediment pollution and downstream impacts
Objective 2: To conduct the EFA in the pilot rivers catchment of Betsiboka to inform sustainable management of river flows
Objective 3: To implement the recommendations of the EFA for sustainable river management
Project Summary:
Accounting for environmental flows is an integral part of river basin management, and leads to obtaining good ecological state for rivers subjected to pressure from exploitation of their waters, particularly for irrigation purposes and episodes of drought that regularly reduce their flow to bare minimum. The Betsiboka river in Madagascar represents a large catchment area of 49,000 km2 passing through 3 major regions. The river catchment faces a number of challenges including intensification of forest fires, deforestation, and multiple competing water uses that put pressure on the water resources, and these have led to deterioration of the state of the river. There is therefore need to integrate the management of water resources in the development of activities, influencing development and management processes, and limiting pressures on riverflows.
The project will conduct environmental flow assessment activities through sensitization and information sharing with stakeholders. The project will carry out an environmental flow study to find implementable solutions for managing environmental issues, in a rational and sustainable way, the river flows and sediment load of rivers coming from the Betsiboka catchments by promotion of water and technical soil conservation recommended and adapted to the situation, the reconstruction of natural resources by the ecosystem and the agro-ecosystem while ensuring the socio-economic development activities are improving the incomes of the local populations in the environment.. The project will contribute to the proposal for a rational and sustainable catchment scheme, environmentally sensitive agrarian systems and the improvement of the vulnerability of the exploitation and population activities. The project will adopt the participatory, spatial, and empowering and gender approach.
