Launched in March 2025, the Ranovola Water Program is a partnership between Virridy and Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation to provide sustainable drinking water services across the Diana, Menabe, and Amoron’i Mania regions of Madagascar. The program name is drawn from Malagasy — ranovola is a traditional burnt-rice water beverage, chosen for its cultural resonance around water as a source of warmth and sustenance.
Building on Helvetas’s existing RATSANTANANA water infrastructure program — which already serves nearly 100,000 daily users — the partnership integrates carbon finance to fund long-term operations and accelerate scale. Virridy deploys its digital monitoring, reporting, and verification (dMRV) platform to continuously track water delivery, enabling rigorous, sensor-based carbon credit generation under Gold Standard methodology GS 429 v1.0.
Carbon credits are generated by eliminating both actual fuelwood combustion by households that currently boil water, and the suppressed demand of the millions who drink contaminated water because they cannot afford to boil it. Revenue from credit sales provides a recurring, sustainable funding stream that does not depend on donor cycles — a structural solution to the gap that causes most community water systems in low-income countries to fail after initial donor investment ends.
Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation was founded in 1955 and has operated in Madagascar since 1982 — making it one of the country’s longest-standing international development partners. The organization’s self-described mission is “help for self-help”: strengthening the self-determination, independence, and livelihoods of disadvantaged people worldwide through local capacity-building rather than parallel delivery structures.
In Madagascar, Helvetas has run the RATSANTANANA water program — a Malagasy phrase meaning “well-managed drinking water” — since 2021. The current phase runs through 2026 and operates in five districts across Menabe and Diana regions: Miandrivazo, Mahabo, and Morondava (Menabe); and Ambanja and Ambilobe (Diana). The program deploys solar-powered boreholes, gravity-fed spring catchments, and water kiosks managed by trained private operators under contract.
A parallel Helvetas initiative, the Telomiova Project in Menabe, ran 2021–2025 with an $8.065M budget co-funded by the One Drop Foundation and Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. It reached 55,694 people with household water access across 15 communes in Menabe, trained 14 women’s associations in resilient farming, and engaged 331,100 community members in behavior-change programming.
Madagascar is one of the world’s most water-insecure nations. Despite national-level progress — access to basic water services rose from 25% to 47% between 2015 and 2020 — rural areas remain severely underserved, and the regions where Ranovola operates face some of the country’s worst access gaps.
In districts where shallow groundwater is accessible, solar-powered submersible pumps draw water from boreholes to elevated storage tanks. The solar-only design eliminates fuel costs and grid dependency, making operations viable at very low per-liter tariffs.
Where topography allows, Helvetas captures and protects natural springs, channeling water through gravity-fed pipe networks. No pumping energy is required. These systems are prioritized in mountainous areas of Diana and Amoron’i Mania where springs are accessible.
Community water points use token-based or prepaid metering to ensure equitable access and cost recovery. Private local operators, trained and contracted by Helvetas, manage day-to-day kiosk operations and routine maintenance — creating local employment and long-term accountability.
Satellite-connected IoT gateways and Virridy’s Lume sensors track pump runtime, water flow volumes, and system uptime in near real-time. This continuous digital data stream forms the evidentiary foundation for Gold Standard carbon credit generation, replacing periodic manual surveys.
Helvetas trains local water authorities to recruit and manage private companies that co-finance infrastructure and recover costs through water tariffs. In the RANO WASH program (a related Helvetas initiative), 12 private operators invested $152,000 of their own funds, serving 5,300 people. The Ranovola model replicates this at scale.
The program integrates WASH infrastructure into primary schools: clean water supply, gender-separated sanitation, menstrual hygiene facilities for girls, solid waste management, and environmental stewardship education. 350+ students in Miandrivazo already benefit from early Helvetas school WASH work.
"Ensuring long-term access to safe drinking water requires not only technical expertise but also financial innovation. By integrating carbon credit revenue into our water systems, we can create a scalable and sustainable model that delivers lasting benefits for Malagasy communities."
Christian Steiner, CEO, Helvetas USA — March 2025
"By applying this model in Madagascar with Helvetas, we can expand access to clean drinking water while ensuring long-term financial viability through carbon credit revenues."
Evan Thomas, CEO & Founder, Virridy — March 2025