Plans for Ethiopia: 2005-2010
A strategy running from 2005 to 2010 sets out the plans and activities for WaterAid in Ethiopia. During this time we will continue to focus on water,
sanitation and hygiene education, working with local partners on
community managed projects.
Hygiene education has increasingly focused on the close links between proper handwashing at critical times, like before eating and after going to the toilet, and improved health, particularly in reducing the numbers of young children that die from diarrheal diseases.
Credit: WaterAid/Caroline Irby
To address the huge needs of the country and ensure as many
Ethiopians as possible gain access to water and sanitation, greater
emphasis will be placed on strengthening partnerships and alliances in
order to influence others.
This includes our close involvement in the WASH (water, sanitation
and hygiene for all) Ethiopia movement and in the Ethiopia Country
Water Partnership (ECWP).
Collaboration is vital as Ethiopia faces
massive challenges with regards to water and sanitation.
- Help 100,000 people gain access to water and 95,000 people gain access to sanitation and hygiene education every year by 2010
- Support local partner organisations to raise their own
funds, while keeping a strong advisory role on how these funds are
spent to ensure at least a further 8000 people gain access to water,
sanitation and hygiene education every year by 2010
Its progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),
targets agreed by all governments to halve the proportions of people
without access to water and sanitation between 1990 and 2015, is
currently way off track. Latrine construction needs to increase more
than ten-fold to 70,000 a month by 2015 to reach the sanitation MDG.
Financing water and sanitation services is a key problem. While
responsibility for water and sanitation has shifted from central to
district government, they still lack the capacity to carry out their
roles effectively and performance is also hindered by the lack of
coordination among donors.
Initial pledges and budgets are often not being translated into
funds, and even when these funds are made available on time, delays in
implementation result in significant under-spending. While the amount
spent on these essential services needs to increase by $31 million a
year, WaterAid is also lobbying for changes in the way in which money
is spent.
It is supporting efforts to improve the coordination of spending and
is working particularly closely with the regional and wereda (district)
governments of Benishangul Gumuz and Oromia Regions with some notable
successes. In these two states WaterAid will also map the number and
functionality of water points to ensure that future services are
provided in an equitable way.
Emphasis will also be placed on sustainability and affordability
issues. In the future 'citizens action' projects will enable
communities to assess the performance of service providers and the
Government and to lobby for improvements in their communities' water
and sanitation services.
Finally, greater emphasis will be placed on water resource
management to ensure that water quality and quantity are maintained in
the long run and to promote a more integrated approach to water
resource management.
This is being promoted through the ECWP but plans are also in place
to create guidelines for all partners and to ensure that at least half
of the rural projects have a significant water resource management
component.
Health benefits of clean water:
Mahari's story
Credit: WaterAid/Caroline Irby
"I have seen a very radical change here.
Before we only had unprotected sources of water. My family suffered
badly. My three year old daughter died from this water. There were
parasites which gave us illnesses and stomach problems. So many
children used to die, but now this has changed and children don't die
from these diseases.
Before we used to have to go to the health
clinics all of the time, often every day. I used to spend time walking
there and hours just queuing to be seen, but now I can save my time and
money. I have bought 20 chickens and one goat from the money I have
saved. With the time I can work on my maize and pepper crop."