Friends of Madagascar Mission has been raising funds to provide deep water wells in the arid south west of Madagascar. Madagascar has many eco-systems: lush tropical areas, mountainous regions, prairie plateaus and arid-desert like regions. It is not very difficult to dig wells in most of the other regions of the country but in the south west beneath the sandy top soil there is hard rock, like granite. To dig a well in this region requires special drilling equipment. FOMM evaluated how we could dig wells there and determined we did not want to get into the well drilling business. We discovered a non-profit called Madagascar Water Project which has a founder/executive director who is a former executive of Exxon Mobile Madagascar, and in addition is a geologist. His organization and FOMM are both working in Madagascar for the same reason: to work with the Malagasy people and that they are in charge of the programs. Beginning in early July they arrived in the Betroka region with equipment that can dig through rock rapidly. As a result they have hit a well that produces 3,000 liters an hour (or 800 gallons an hour). That is the highest their measuring equipment will go, so we are told it could even be a greater output. This is the best well in the city of Betroka and it will serve four facilities (A retreat center with 600 people that cares for the poor and mentally ill; a large school; the Betroka Lutheran Synod Office; and a future medical clinic that FOMM is building.) through building a water distribution system including a water tower and piping system. There will be more wells dug through FOMM and we hope and pray that we will be able to raise more funds to drill more wells in this arid region of Madagascar. For more information on how you may support this program, please check the Water Wells page on the website.
