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Ethiopia

While being one of the world’s richest countries in terms of history, culture, and heritage, Ethiopia is one of the world’s poorest countries economically. In the 2018 United Nations Human Development Report, Ethiopia ranked 173rd out of 189 countries in the Human Development Index. The lack of access to safe water and toilets places a heavy burden on children. Water-related illnesses are widespread, resulting in a child mortality rate in Ethiopia that is among the highest in the world. The burden of water collection falls to women and girls who spend hours every day collecting water from distant sources. In addition, they are expected to cook, collect firewood, tend fields, and care for the sick, many of whom are suffering from water and sanitation-related diseases. Time spent collecting water is time that could be spent participating in income-generating opportunities or, in the case of girls, attending school. Neck and back injuries are common among the women of Oromia. Since 2005, Water1st has been providing support to our Ethiopian partner organization, Water Action, to work with rural communities to implement integrated water and sanitation projects that also protect the watershed.

ABOUT ETHIOPIA*

Population: 105,000,000
% living on less than $1.90/day: 27%
% without access to clean water: 60%
Partner: Water Action

COMPLETED PROJECTS

6 piped water systems serving 21,084 people

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

1 water system serving 3,800 people with household connections
*Source: World Bank and UNICEF

In the Nick of Time

Water Flows in Dima Jelliwan
In early March 2020, about the same time the first case of coronavirus was detected in Ethiopia, the community of Dima Jeliwan turned on their household taps and clean water flowed for the first time. Now every family is armed with the number one defense against pathogens of all kinds, clean water. All Water1st projects are designed to make handwashing possible in places like rural Dima Jeliwan. If we want people to wash hands frequently, we must go the extra mile to build systems that pipe water directly to every household. The return on this investment is enormous as women and girls no longer spend their days walking and waiting in long lines at public taps; women have time to earn an income; girls can attend school; and their families have enough water to maintain a hygienic living environment that benefits our global community.

Program Highlights

Local government participation
The local government water office has agreed to co-finance our projects. This is a positive development on many fronts. Not only does it allow us to stretch our donations further, it leaves communities feeling hopeful their government cares about them, and ensures that local government has a stake in the project’s long-term success.
New standards: household piped water
Based on years of field data, Water1st believes household water supply (piped water) and quality toilets have the greatest health and economic impacts on a community. Our partner, Water Action, is implementing household water connections and pour-flush toilets in the current Ethiopia project, similar to the models used successfully in Honduras and Mozambique. Currently, only 4% of rural water systems in all of Ethiopia are ‘on premises’ (at households). We anticipate this innovative experiment will lead to a new standard for projects in Ethiopia.
Three hours each day
In Ethiopia, approximately 60% of the people lack access to clean water, and over 70% do not have sanitary toilets. These numbers grow even higher in the rural areas where we work. Without access to a safe water supply, women and girls spend more than three hours each day collecting water. They walk multiple times a day to distant contaminated sources, carrying containers weighing 40 pounds.
ethiopia carrying water
Advantages of Piped Water
There are currently six Water1st-funded piped water networks in Ethiopia. One advantage of a piped water network is the ability to create household connections. In three of our projects (Ilamu Muja, Kelecho Gerbi, and Gonbisa Kussaye) families have paid to connect to the water supply system. Each household connection includes a water meter and users are charged a monthly bill based on the volume of water used. We know from meter readings that households with a direct connection use roughly 50 liters per person per day, the volume necessary to ensure sufficient water for drinking, cooking, and hygiene. Households collecting water from public taps are using less than half the volume needed to be healthy. These meter readings convinced Water1st to invest the additional amount needed to provide household connections to all users from the start of the project.
Comprehensive and integrated systems
Our Ethiopia partner, Water Action, works with rural communities to implement water, sanitation, hygiene, and watershed protection programs. In order to maximize their impact, Water Action develops a master plan for an entire region. Water1st is focused on implementing the plan for the Dawo Woreda, a county within the Oromia region. Projects are clustered geographically, resulting in compounded benefits. Communities can learn from one another and a market emerges for supplies and spare parts.
WATER SUPPLY: Capped & Protected Springs, Drilled Wells, Piped Water
Projects use a capped and protected spring or a drilled well as the water source. Water is then pumped via miles of pipe to a storage tank and distributed by gravity to public water points and household water connections. Community members pay for the amount of water used, approximately 2 cents per 5 gallons. Water systems are metered to assure quality control related to fee collection and the swift identification of system leaks.
Investment of Labor
Community members invest their labor in every stage of project construction. They are responsible for all unskilled labor, such as building access roads, excavating miles of pipeline trench by hand, carrying pipe, and building toilets.

Stories from the field

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