Transport Safety in Madagascar
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International Forum for Rural Transport and Development (IFRTD) TRANSPORT SAFETY IN MADAGASCAR Assessing Major Transport Safety Problems in the rural areas of the High Plateaux of Madagascar Case Study: Soavinandriana 1. General context (Executive summary) The mobility of a population can be seen as both a factor and an indicator of development. The easier people of a given region or commune move around, the easier they pick up public service jobs especially contracts, the more they feel the drive to work and educate themselves and the better their health situation. Consequently, any obstacle to population mobility particularly in the rural areas where there exist very few opportunities could retard the development of that region. This study focuses on a vital aspect of the movement of goods and people which is transport safety. Poor safety and the very high risk involved in moving from one place to another are a serious deterrent to people who intend to move around. There are two major forms of risk: accidents and attacks. 2. Introduction Madagascar has long been among the ten poorest countries in the world. During the past few years and thanks to enormous efforts, the country has gradually been working its way out of the poverty zone and is now close to the third position. With a surface area of 590,000 km2, the “Great Island” has a population of about 16 million inhabitants with only 10000 kilometres of roads and paths that are permanently impassable. This can be explained by two major factors: - Vast areas of the country are still inaccessible and do not offer enough safety of persons. The authorities cannot easily move around when there is an incident or an attack and there are many no-go areas. - Most of the transportation of farm produce for the market and foodstuff for local consumption has to be done on foot over long distances on old and poorly maintained paths. During the past five years, the State of Malagasy, with support from donor agencies and development partners, has made remarkable efforts to rebuild its road network. Such a vital policy to rehabilitate road infrastructure helps to gradually renew human and economic activities and to ensure greater safety in the country in general. However, because the country is very large and lacking in road infrastructure, farmers in the rural areas still find a lot difficulties to transport their goods to big markets where they can have good prices for their 1 commodities. The greater part of these farm products is transported on the back (quite often by women on their head), on zebu-driven carts, in boats or on bicycles to local markets. From here, the products are transported on motorbikes, in vans or off-road pick-ups to big district markets where buyers from town come with their trucks. With the current state of the roads the whole country begins to face serious safety problems. For so long the local road network was abandoned because all roads led to the villages or to the chief towns of communes that were themselves inaccessible. Now that the major highways, national and provincial highways are gradually being reconstructed, it is important economically to rehabilitate those secondary roads. Rehabilitation is also important socially, because the local network facilitates access to hospitals and schools. The movement of persons and goods constitute a renewed takeoff of activities that contribute to the development of several regions that have remained inaccessible for long such as the area under study where 10 communes out of 15 cannot easily be reached by any road for whole year.1 Soavinandriana District situated in the interior of High Lands of Madagascar, may be said to be the Antananarivo province in miniature. It is situated 140km to the south west of the capital in a mainly agricultural region. This region, like most of the country, is barely beginning to move out of a subsistence economy characterised mainly by food crop production to solve the basic needs of the local population through trade by batter and to achieve self-sufficiency, into a market economy based on larger scale and more diversified production where there will be surplus for sale. There is already a high seasonal production of rice, potatoes, maize, tomatoes, pawpaw and fish from the lake. There are also cash crops like tobacco and coffee. Production is mainly carried out by family members of a piece of land usually not bigger than a hectare. Some larger and more organised farms with their own means of transport are beginning to come up. Although some enthusiasm actually reigns in the villages, news problems are coming up among which is the issue of safety of highway. Everybody agrees on the fact that the reopening of roads has brought many changes, but few donor agencies or partners have ever thought of the negative impacts. This study is, therefore, an overview of the people’s perception of safety relating to travel within the rural milieu. Overview of the transport sector There is an on-going institutional reform of the transport sector in Madagascar. The structure that was inherited from the colonial and socialist epochs is no longer adapted to the current changes and needs, therefore, to be reviewed. The underlying principle is to break up the transport sector into various branches: Maritime transport, Rail transport, Air transport and Land transport, each placed under an autonomous body. Each body shall be given great autonomy and may receive financial support from various donor agencies. Technical assistants are currently being recruited to strengthen the staff of the Ministry. Within this framework, the Department of Transport Safety is carrying out a thorough revision of the Highway Code and of the statutes and regulations for driving schools. The conditions for obtaining driving licences shall equally be revised. It is a secret to no one that there are fake driving licences in circulation. Moreover, the changes in the type of vehicles require new measures. Many human-driven vehicles (rickshaws, kalesy) or animal-driven vehicles (picking carts, etc) are still plying the road in the villages and even in town. The number of motor scooters, bicycles and small motorbikes is on the rise and larger and larger trucks are also on the road. The roads state of the roads is gradually improving and drivers tend to drive faster than before. Some of them are inexperienced and, therefore, not competent enough to handle their vehicles. The Highway Code must, therefore be revised completely taking into account all theses factors the problems caused by interferences between the different means of transport. 1 Monogrph of Soavinandriana District (Nov. 2006) 2 ANTANANARIVO TRAFFIC ACCIDENT STATISTICS 2004 2005 Bodily Injury 869 1423 Deadly 43 60 Material damage 118 149 Mixed (*) 17 129 Drunk driving 195 191 Hit-and-run 505 503 (*) Mixed: Material damage +Bodily Injury and/or Deadly Source: Department of traffic accidents – Central Police Station A project funded by the French Cooperation Mission provided computer equipment and training to senior workers of the Ministry, the Gendarmerie and the Police for the collection and treatment of data relating to bodily injury, on a monthly bases. This system that was put in place in June 2005, is still in its experimental phase. We can conclude by saying that the process is on the right track and needs just time. 3. Methodology The choice of Soavinandriana District is very important for this study because it has almost all the means of rural transport found in the country. In fact, a major highway (the RN1) with the recently paved RN43 stretch links it to the Capital. There, therefore, is regular road network that enables daily transportation between the headquarters of the district and the main market in the Capital city. RN 4 "M Tsiroanomandidy %C %O ANTANANARIVO%C Analavory Miarinarivo "G "M %I Q' RN 1 Arivonimamo AMPEFY %C ANKARANANA SOAVINANDRIANA RN 7 "M %I F. IT "M AMPARY ASY Antsirabe "± %I ANTANETIBE R N 1 4 0 3 3 3 0 o Belavenona 1 c MAHAVELONA 03 n 1 AMBATOASANAi CENTRE b SOAVINANDRIANA 4 0 DONDONA 1 1 0 b 6 5 a 0 1 AMBEROMANGA y AMPARIBOHITRA Saka MASINDRAY AMPARAKY ANKISABE TAMPONALA 3 Various types of vehicles are involved in the transportation of both manufactured goods and agricultural produce in and out of the district. Engine-Driven Not Engine-Driven Trucks Boats Vans Carts Pick-ups Bicycles Farm vehicles Rickshaws Fifth-wheel tractors Kalesy Motorbikes Communes Distance from commune headquarters(km) Ampefy 8 NORTH ZONE Ampary 8 Ankaranana 22 Masindray 18 SOUTH Amparibohitra 14 ZONE Amparaky 32 Soavinandriana District headquarters EAST ZONE Dondona 21 Antanetibe 72 Ankisabe 54 Ambatoasana centre 45 Tamponala 72 WEST ZONE Mahavelona 36 Amberomanga 35 Mananasy 12 This study attempts to analyse transport safety problems as a whole. At the local level, elected officials, government officials at various levels, Gendarmerie and district health officials were interviewed separately. Top officials in the Ministry of Transport2 also accepted to contribute to the analysis of the situation. Their shared views and opinions appear as a watermark in the comments. 2 Mr Rakotoarison Pierre: Head of Service for Road Safety in the Ministry of Transport and Mrs Rabakoarisoa Olga: Regulations Officer, Department of Transport 4 Fieldwork was carried out for 4 months between December 9, 2006 and January 6, 2007. Respondents came from 12 communes of Soavinandriana District. Interviews were conducted at 7 different spots and on different dates over a period of 11 days. Those interview responded freely and anonymously. The study made use of two main questionnaires designed to collect information on the respondent’s profile, the cause of their movement, the means of transport mostly used and above all, the fears travellers have and a recount of incidents that occurred.