26 July 2008
It may sound a modest target to people in the UK, where the average person gets through 150 litres of water a day, but in Ethiopia there can be no doubt it's an ambitious one.
The Ethiopian Government has set itself the goal of ensuring that, by 2012, all people in rural parts of the country have access to 15 litres of water every day and that water sources are located only a short (under 1.5 kilometres) walk from their homes. Turning this ambition into a reality will certainly be a challenge, but one village in the Amhara region of northwest Ethiopia has shown what can be achieved by spending a little money wisely and by putting the right technology in place.
No more three hour trips
Fifty-six year old Sera Worku lives in Faggeta Lekoma, a small village about one and a half hour's drive from Bahirdar, the capital of Amhara. Sera and her husband are subsistence farmers, growing teff (an important food grain in Ethiopia used to make injera, a pancake-like bread), as well as maize, potatoes and cabbage. They also have a few eucalyptus trees, which they sell for timber.
Until recently, if she wanted water Sera had to make a three hour round trip to a dirty spring. Nowadays, however, she has a protected water source just 100 metres away from her front door.
Sera's water comes from a manually dug well, fitted with a hand-operated pump. The well, which serves 180 people in the surrounding village and costs just £9 per person, is one of ten schemes in the district financed so far from a national water and sanitation project co-sponsored by DFID and the World Bank.
More time for spinning
Sera is now able to collect three to four jars of clean water each morning and the same number again in the evening - enough to meet the needs of her family of seven. "The amount of water we use at home has gone up a lot, and collecting it is so much easier," says Sera.
"People ask me if I miss out on the social side of collecting water with my friends," she adds, "but it doesn’t matter, as there are plenty more ways to catch up on gossip, like at church or at the market."
With the time she saves fetching water, Sera is able to help her husband farm the land. She also has more time for making clothes for her family, which she does through the delicate, traditional process of spinning yarn into thread.
Demand for sanitation
It’s not just Sera's family who have seen some major differences lately. Every home in the community now has its own latrine, each constructed out of locally available materials and fitted with a facility for hand washing.
Fantu Worku, 49, one of Sera’s neighbours and a hygiene promotion volunteer for 15 households, talks of the significant decline in open defecation and remarks on how, these days, fewer children are suffering from diarrhoea. Having experimented with a simple toilet structure, Fantu now plans to build a much more sustainable one at his home.
With more toilets throughout the village and more time on the villagers' hands, things are certainly looking up for Sera and her neighbours - a sign of what can be achieved when governments and development partners commit to water and sanitation.
Facts and stats
- Ethiopia needs to spend £300 million a year between now and 2015 to reach the water and sanitation Millennium Development Goals. DFID is helping by investing £75 million over five years to the national Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme. The programme is co-financed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
- Around 3.2 million Ethiopians will benefit from DFID’s funds, representing an 8% reduction in those currently without access to clean water. The WASH programme provides improved water supplies, improved latrines in homes and schools and training for water technicians and health extension workers.
- To help Ethiopia achieve the MDG targets for water and sanitation, DFID also provides strategic support to the Ethiopian Ministry of Water Resources through a research programme and the secondment of a policy adviser.
