Digging for water in Ticho

Under the baking Ethiopian sun, hundreds of men and women from the small market town of Ticho and surrounding villages gave up their Saturday to gather in a field with shovels, picks and any other tools they could find. Their mission: to dig a trench.

Digging through the dry, hard earth was back-breaking, thirsty work, but the mood was one of excitement. Soon, a water pipe would be laid in the trench and a water point constructed, bringing clean water to the people of Sekela for the first time.

Now the water we drink is like milk. Before, we drank water that donkeys had died in. Before, we got stomach problems, but no longer. Water has made big differences to our lives.

Sekela is one of the villages on the route between five mountain springs and the towns of Ticho and Kella in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. The Sekela water point will be one of 34 water points that provides 20,500 people with access to clean spring water through a gravity flow water network designed by WaterAid. The capital costs of the system – such as pipes, tanks, faucets – are paid for by WaterAid while the community contributes their labor and will be responsible for the network’s ongoing maintenance.

The benefits of water

Gaining access to clean water means so much, as Shehkelil Haji Fako, an elder from one of the first villages to have a water point, explained:

“Now the water we drink is like milk. Before, we drank water that donkeys had died in. Before, we got stomach problems, but no longer. Water has made big differences to our lives. The women and girls went to the river to collect water early in the morning or early in the evening and there were too many rapes and cases of sexual harassment when they walked through the forest to the river. Now they can fetch water from the water points and be safe. We thank you for this. ”

Improving hygiene

To maximize the health benefits of the new clean water supply, WaterAid also promoted improved hygiene practices to the people in the Ticho area.

Hiruut Negessie is a science teacher at Gergeda Silingo School just outside Ticho. She has worked with WaterAid to develop hygiene education classes for children in grades one through twelve, and has formed a school sanitation club that helps students use the new WaterAid latrines safely.

Hiruut described how the students’ learning has improved following WaterAid’s program:

“Before, the students couldn’t go to the toilet and they couldn’t get water, so they were always anxious and the teaching and learning process was not easy. Before, they had to go to the river to get water at recess and they had to cross a busy road. Sometimes recess would be over and the classroom door was shut, but they would still be at the river, so they would miss the beginning of class, and when they got here they would be tired so they couldn’t concentrate so well.”

Community management

Each of the new water points is managed by a tapstand attendant who keeps the area clean and collects a small fee for each jerry can of water collected—money which is put into a central maintenance fund. Masresha Demisie, who works as a tapstand attendant at one of the new water points, said:

“This tapstand has been here for a year. I am very pleased to have this job and this opportunity. The money I collect goes to the water board. They pay us [the tap attendants], and if it is necessary they can buy materials for repairs. Before this, I got water from the river. It would take an hour to fetch water from the river. Before, it was common to have diseases like cholera and diarrhea. Both of us got sick, myself and the baby. Now, it only takes 15 minutes to collect water.”

You can help give water to more villages by making a contribution to WaterAid.