Clean water brings dignity

April 2011

I recently had the opportunity to visit my first WaterAid-supported program. After driving about two hours west of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, we reached Gare Arera kebele (or “ward”), a small subset of Oromia Regional State.

Thank you. Before, we were mules. Now, we are human.

As we drove to our destination, not far from a small town, we passed a bustling afternoon market, watching people walk toward town with goats and other saleable animals. All the while, local kids ran alongside our vehicle over rough terrain, waving and shouting.

Our first stop, on a sparse plateau surrounded by hills rising on either side, was a natural spring that is the source of the community’s new safe drinking water.

WaterAid's local partner, Water Action, began the water scheme by helping local people to build a fence around the spring to protect it from contamination with animal feces, and then tested the water. Fortunately, the water source only needed simple chlorine treatment to make it potable. 

Then a system of pipes was installed to take the treated drinking water to the village center. Some of the water is left untreated and is held in a storage tank near the spring’s source, so it can be used for agricultural and other non-potable uses.

We met with the village Water Committee, which is made up of local people (half of whom are women), to ask them about the new water scheme’s sustainability and impact on their lives.

Each household in the village has an allocation of water it can use each day. So far, much less is being used than has been allotted, but the village Water Committee expects that, when they become accustomed to having a reliable source of water, families will begin using their full allocation. 

The Water Committee explained that each household contributes fees towards the management and maintenance of the new water supply. 

When asked whether the user fees for water required households to sacrifice other necessities, several people enthusiastically explained how the benefits made the fees irrelevant. Spending less time collecting water gives the women more time to generate income, to care for their families, and to socialize, we were told. 

Previously, women spent hours each day trekking across rough, hilly terrain in search of water from distant, unsafe sources such as rivers contaminated with animal waste.

In Africa alone, some 40 billion hours are spent collecting water each year.  As is abundantly clear in Gare Arera, freeing up time from water collection not only improves health and reduces poverty, it gives women their dignity back.

Ultimately, one woman simply thanked us. “Before, we were mules,” she said. “Now, we are human.”

Lisa Schechtman, Head of Policy and Advocacy, WaterAid in America