Water supply and sanitation in Ethiopia

Access

The number of people lacking access to "improved" water in 2015 was 42 million. Regarding sanitation, progress has been slower and there were still 71 million people without access to "improved" sanitation, in 2015. According to data from the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation of WHO and UNICEF, which are in turn based on data from various national surveys including the 2005 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), access to an improved water source and improved sanitation was estimated as follows in 2008:

According to figures used by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development for planning purposes, however, access was much higher. In 2010, access to drinking water was estimated at 68.5%: 91.5% in urban areas (within 0.5 km) and 65.8% in rural areas (within 1.5 km). The higher figure for rural areas may be because the distance to an improved water source used in this definition is higher than the distance used by the Demographic and Health Survey.

In 1990 access to improved water supply had been estimated at only 17%, and access to improved sanitation had been estimated at only 4%. There thus has been a significant increase in access for water supply and sanitation, which spans both urban and rural areas. More than 138,000 improved community water points were constructed and rehabilitated from 2008 to 2010.

In communities that lack access to an improved water source, women bear the brunt of the burden of collecting water. For example, according to an article by Tina Rosenberg for National Geographic, in the mountain-top village Foro in the Konso special woreda of southwestern Ethiopia women make three to five round trips per day to fetch dirty water from the Koiro river. Each roundtrip lasts two to three hours and water is carried in "50-pound jerrycans".

Service quality

Drinking water quality. Drinking water quality in Ethiopia varies. The most comprehensive picture of drinking water quality are the results of a national statistically representative survey of piped water supply, boreholes, protected dug wells and protected springs carried out by the WHO and UNICEF in 2004-2005. It shows that 72% of samples complied with the values for coliform bacteria in the Ethiopian drinking water standard ES 261:2001 and the WHO guidelines for drinking water. In the case of piped water supply by utilities compliance was highest at 88%. Open wells and unprotected springs were not included in the survey. Besides bacterial contamination, natural contamination with fluoride is an issue in the Rift Valley. The results of the survey confirm the results of routine monitoring undertaken in the laboratories of the Regional Water Bureaus and the Regional Health Bureaus. The latter results are archived at the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute. Interaction and exchange of information between regional health bureaus and regional water bureaus is poor.

Other aspects of service quality. In 2010, 20 percent of rural water systems were malfunctioning, down from 25% in 2007. About 35 percent of the estimated 30,000 hand pumps in Ethiopia, serving an estimated 2 million people, were non-functioning in the mid-2000s. In piped water systems rationing and service interruptions are frequent. There are no wastewater treatment plants in Ethiopia, so all wastewater collected in sewers is discharged without any treatment to the environment.

Responsibility for water supply and sanitation

For more details see: Regions of Ethiopia

In order to understand responsibilities in the sector it is necessary to provide a brief overview of local government in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a federal state consisting of the following subdivisions:

In addition to the nine regions there are two “chartered cities”, (Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa), where the lower-level administrative units mentioned above do not exist. There is wide disparity in development and institutional capacity between regions and also within regions. The Amhara, Oromia, Tigray regions as well as the small Harari region are relatively developed. About 70% of Ethiopians live in these four regions. The Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region, where about 20% of the population lives, is very heterogeneous. In the more pastoralist and remote “emerging” regions Somali, Afar, Gambela and Benishangul-Gumuz Regions, where about 10% of the population lives, capacity tends to be lowest.

Policy and regulation

There are strong national water supply and sanitation policies and key agencies have clear roles and strategies. National policies are set by the Ministry of Water and Energy (MWE), formerly the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR), for water supply, and by the Ministry of Health for sanitation.

In 2006 the government adopted a Universal Access Plan (UAP) to achieve 98% access for rural water supply and 100% access for urban water supply and sanitation by 2012. Its cost was estimated at US$2.5bn. During the first phase until 2012 the focus is on affordable and appropriate technologies, with the following service standards:

In October 2006 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of the Environment to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each Ministry in the implementation of the Universal Access Plan. Regional Water Bureaus and Woreda Water Desks are in charge of investment planning, monitoring and technical assistance to service providers. Their capacity to fulfill these tasks is sometimes limited.

Water supply

Formally the MWE's mandate covers only water resources management and it has no legal mandate concerning drinking water supply. Nevertheless, it is de facto the entity in charge of setting policies for water supply and to channel donor funds in the sector to local government entities. As of 2009, what was then the Ministry of Water Resources had 737 employees in eight departments and 10 "services". One of the eight departments is the Water Supply and Sewerage Department. As of 2011 Alamayehu Tegenu is the Minister of Water and Energy.

In 2001 the government adopted a National Water Strategy prepared by the MWR. The overall strategy includes a water resources strategy, a hydropower development strategy, a water supply and sanitation strategy, and an irrigation strategy.

Concerning water supply and sanitation, the strategy aims at:

The strategy document does not include a diagnostic of the current situation. The water and sanitation part of the strategy alone includes 44 recommendations concerning technical, institutional, capacity building, social, economic and environmental issues. There is no priorization between the recommendations and the strategy does not establish mechanisms to monitor the implementation of the strategy.

Sanitation

The Ministry of Health is in charge of policies related to sanitation and hygiene promotion. It has adopted a Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion Strategy. De facto sewers in urban areas are under the responsibility of the MWR, while the promotion of on-site sanitation is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health. The Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion Strategy has re-focused government resources on the promotion of pro-poor, low-cost practices.

Service provision

In the capital, the Addis Ababa Water and Sewer Authority provides water and sewer services. In other cities and towns, Town Water Boards are responsible for service provision. They are expected to contract out service provision to private operators. In rural areas community water and sanitation committees operate water systems and promote sanitation. Not all the local committees are registered, which is a prerequisite to open a bank account to hold funds collected from users. Woreda Water Desks (local government entities) are supposed to support local committees. However, according to a research report funded by DFID, the community management service delivery approach that dominates in rural areas in Ethiopia "has bypassed local government authorities and reduced their ownership; however these actors are still needed if rural services are to be sustainable and scalable."

Other

Regional water resources development bureaus play an important role in planning investments at the regional level and in capacity building.

The Ethiopian Social Rehabilitation and Development Fund (ERSDF) – a Social Fund established in 1996 – is also an important actor, especially in rural areas. It has financed almost 2,000 rural water projects serving about 2.5 million people. However, the government has decided to phase out the ERSDF and to re-deploy its staff to other institutions.

History and recent developments

Until 1995 the national government had been responsible for centrally planning and implementing water and sanitation projects. Under the 1995 constitution Ethiopia became a federal state, which implied the decentralization of many functions to lower levels of government. This process has now been under way for more than a decade, but decentralization has been hampered by the limited capacity of local government to carry out its new responsibilities.

Also in 1995, a Ministry of Water Resources was created, taking over many of the responsibilities of the water resources department of the former Ministry of Public Works.

In 1999 the government adopted a National Water Resources Management Policy, which was followed by the establishment of a Water Resources Development Fund (2002) and a Water Sector Development Program. The latter includes a water supply and sewerage development program (nota bene the focus on sewerage and thus the absence of on-site sanitation from the program).

The government’s Plan for Accelerated Sustained Development and to End Poverty (PADEP), covering the period 2005-2010, aimed at increasing access to an improved water source to 84% and access to improved sanitation to 80% by 2010. These ambitious targets go well beyond the water and sanitation targets of the Millennium Development Goals, which aim at halving the share of people without access by 2015. According to one set of government figures, which is used by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development for planning purposes, access to drinking water reached 68.5% in 2010. According to another set of government figures, based on national survey data and used by the WHO and UNICEF to monitor the Millennium Development Goals, in 2008 access to an improved water source was only 38% and to improved sanitation 12%.

In 2010 the government presented the equally ambitious Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) 2011-2015 that aims at increasing drinking water coverage, based on the government's definition, from 68.5% to 98.5%.

Tariffs and cost recovery

On average cost recovery is too low to recover operating costs, not to speak of providing adequate maintenance of facilities. Recurrent expenditures – estimated at US$29 million in 2001–02 – were financed primarily through user charges (64%), as well as by subsidies from the regional governments (31%) and the federal government (5%). Despite this overall bleak picture, a few service providers recover all operating costs and generate a modest cash surplus.

The National Water Resources Management Policy aims at full cost recovery for urban systems and recovery of operation and maintenance costs for rural systems. It is not clear if progress has been made to achieve this ambitious objective since the policy was adopted.

Investment

Actual investment. There are no recent reliable estimates of actual investment levels in the sector, and available estimates vary greatly. A detailed estimate of investment and financial flows in the Ethiopian water sector was carried out by the World Bank's Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) for the financial year 2001-02. It estimated total sector investments at US$39 million or less than half a dollar per capita, being one of the lowest recorded sector investment levels in the world. Water and sanitation have declined as a share of total poor-focused expenditure from 7.4% in 2005/06 to 3.4% in 2009/10. In addition, according to research funded by DFID, "actual expenditure may fall well short of these levels. It seems that a very significant proportion of resources are not utilised and are subject to bottlenecks."

Projected investment. The government estimates that annual investments in the 2006-2015 period will reach about US$100 million per year, or about two and a half times their level in 2001-2002. This projection is based on funding commitments made by donors and the government. It thus does not take into account bottlenecks in implementation due to limited capacities or other potential pitfalls. The government estimates that the actual investment needs are about three times as much or US$297 million per year for the period 2006-2015.

Financing

Sources. According to the WSP estimate quoted, in 2001-2002 only 9% of sector investments were funded by the federal budget, 55% through the regional budget, 33% off-budget by NGOs, 2% by the ERSDF and 1% by other sources. This estimate does not include community in-kind contributions, which are high for rural water supply and sanitation. A high but unknown share of the federal budget and probably also of the Woreda budget devoted to the sector is funded by donors. Concerning projected investments for 2006–2015, it is estimated that 12% (US$12 million) will be funded by the government with its own resources, 15% (US$16 million) by communities and 73% (US$75 million) by donors. It is not clear if this estimate includes off-budget support by NGOs. Because of the different categories used, a comparison between the historical and projected sources of financing is not possible.

Processes. According to a research report funded by DFID, the levels of funding to services delivered by regional and local government are difficult to predict. A large share of donor funding is channeled outside the government budget, although as of 2009 there was a trend for donors and government to "ensure the alignment of financing mechanisms". Where financing is provided through the budget, conditions and reporting procedures are "excessively onerous". Budget transparency and accountability are limited, although efforts are being made to create an open budget system at all levels of government. According to the report the government, particularly at lower tiers, "does not recognise citizens’ rights to information about budget allocations". The Universal Access Plan uses national-level unit costs to allocated government funds to local governments. The unit cost approach fails to take regional differences into account. There is no funding for operation and maintenance or the costs of local governments to support communities in operation and maintenance. This increases the risk that newly built systems will be failing. For the country's 550 Woredas an important source of financing are block grants from the central government which they can use autonomously within broad criteria set by the Water Resources Development Fund (WRDF). The WRDF itself provides loans and is administered by a Board that is responsible to the MWE and is funded through budgetary allocations and donor funds.

Water-related issues

It is important for water to be drinkable and usable for daily use. Without any clean water there would more chances at water related diseases. The World Bank also stated that in Ethiopia from 2011-2015 every 64 in 1000 infants pass away before the age of 1. So in Ethiopia there is a 6.4% chance that one's infant would not be able to survive more than one year. Also take in account that these 6.4% infants are mostly born in the rural areas of Ethiopia.

The Water & Sanitation Crisis

In the rural areas of Ethiopia, woman children walk up to six hours to collect water. They collect water from unprotected ponds which the share with animals. Others collect from wells. Both of these methods can be easily contaminated when rain water washes waste into to the pond or well. Under half of the population in Ethiopia has access to an improved water supply. Also only 21% of the population has access to adequate sanitation services. In the last 20 years, Ethiopia has suffered a lot because of droughts, shortages and famines. When there are droughts water-related diseases reoccur consistently. Also when there is too much water because of the rain it becomes as a breeding place for mosquitoes. Image of contaminated water in Ethiopia.

Solutions

There are a lot of ways that humans have collaborated to find a way to make everyone have adequate hygiene knowledge or access to water. Here are a few examples for how we can approach issues relating to inadequate access to water or hygiene.

Water Supply:

A solar powered pump that uses locally sourced equipment can pump around 30,000 clean liters of clean, safe water per day.

Some of the world's poorest people are those who live in poverty and in inhuman places. Installing effective sanitation or hygienic toilets would be useful and would reduce a lot of diseases spreading around..

Simple irrigation techniques can help and will help families move from being malnourished to being self-sufficient.

Sanitation=

People living in poverty areas or region mostly have poor hygiene behavior. This is not because they are like that but because they don't have the resources to do so. They lack of sanitation mostly due to rapid urbanization.