Foro: one year later
March 2011
National Geographic
readers may remember Foro. The village, located in the isolated, deprived region of Konso in Ethiopia, was profiled in the feature
The Burden of Thirst, published in the magazine's special water issue a year ago this month.
Binayo dropped out of school when she was eight years old, in part because she had to help her mother fetch water from the Toiro River. 
Tina Rosenberg
Author Tina Rosenberg poignantly described a young mother in Foro who faced a daily struggle to find clean water:
Children collecting water in Foro.
Lynn Johnson / National Geographic
“Aylito Binayo's feet know the mountain. Even at four in the morning she can run down the rocks to the river by starlight alone and climb the steep mountain back up to her village with 50 pounds of water on her back. She has made this journey three times a day for nearly all her 25 years. …
"Binayo dropped out of school when she was eight years old, in part because she had to help her mother fetch water from the Toiro River. The water is dirty and unsafe to drink … But it is the only water Foro has ever had.”
As well as denying her an education, the lack of safe water kept Binayo
from caring for her children, who were frequently left alone while she
spent eight hours a day fetching water. And the children risked their
health with each sip of water they drank.
But now - for the first time ever - Binayo and over 6,000 other villagers have access to clean, safe water.
Since the article’s publication, the community worked with WaterAid to construct a deep well and pump system that brings water to the heart of the village.
While we celebrate this achievement with the people of Foro, a desperate need for water still exists in many other villages across the developing world. Every day, 4,000 children under five die from easily prevented water-related diseases and countless more miss school.
Women collecting water in Foro before the WaterAid water point was opened.
Lynn Johnson / National Geographic
To reach communities like Foro, WaterAid depends on the generosity of individuals like you. In fact, just $30 is enough to provide someone with a lifetime of safe water.
Please
donate today
and help us reach more of the 884 million people living without life’s most basic necessity – safe water.
WaterAid's Ethiopia Country Representative Sarina Prabasi at the opening of the new water point in Foro.
More than 20,000 people in the market town of Ticho and surrounding villages in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia now have access to water thanks to WaterAid helping them build a spring-fed gravity flow water network. Previously, nobody had clean water there.
Read full story
Where water is scarce, WaterAid has to use innovative way to find water. The solution for the town of Karat in Ethiopia's Konso region: an underground sand dam.
Find out more