Ethiopia
Context
Ethiopia is Africa's fourth largest and second most populous country. It has a rich cultural and religious history but is also known for its droughts, famines and conflicts.
Ethiopia is one for the poorest countries in the world and one of the least well served in terms of water and sanitation. Health services are limited and child mortality is high.
Agriculture accounts for half of GDP in Ethiopia but droughts are frequent and cultivation practices weak.
Water can sometimes only be found 200 metres below ground level in the Southern Nations and Nationality People's Region of Ethiopia.
Within just 250 kilometres of Addis Ababa, the capital, areas of infrastructure are so poor that access roads must be built before project work can begin.
What has WaterAid achieved?
- More than 900,000 Ethiopians have benefitted from WaterAid funded projects.
- WaterAid has funded more than 50 water and sanitation projects and several capacity building and institutional development projects.
- WaterAid has coordinated WASH Ethiopia, a country-wide water, sanitation and hygiene movement linked to the international Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.
- WaterAid helped set up and now hosts the Ethiopian Country Water Partnership (ECWP), a branch of the Global Water Partnership.
WaterAid's programme work in Ethiopia
WaterAid began funding projects in Ethiopia in 1983 and now works with local non governmental organisations (NGOs), the local private sector and local and regional government departments.
WaterAid provides safe water, sanitation and hygiene education using appropriate and sustainable technologies and influences decision-makers on water and sanitation.
Ethiopia country strategy 2011-2015
Case Study
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Credit: WaterAid /
Marco Betti |
Abadit is featured here drinking water from a tapstand near Adiger, Ethiopia. Before the tapstand was built, she had to walk for an hour and a half each way to collect water.
"It was far before and now it's close. On top of that, the water is clean now and I am happy for that.
With the time I have now I can study more and be a student. Because of hygiene education I learnt that unsafe water contains bacteria.
Price points
- £9 could pay for a bag of cement to produce a latrine slab
- £90 could pay for a locally manufactured rope pump
- £125 is enough to set up a school health club
- £3,750 could pay for a school sanitation block for 1200 children
Films/ technology/other links
National Geographic focuses on 'the burden of thirst'
'Where toilets fly'
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Ethiopia Sources:
World Bank (2011) World Development Indicators database - databank.worldbank.org, WHO / UNICEF (2010) Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report 2010, UNDP (2011), Human Development Report 2011 NB. Official statistics tend to understate the extent of water and sanitation problems, sometimes by a large factor. There are not sufficient resources available for accurate monitoring of either population or coverage. Varying definitions of water and sanitation coverage are used and national figures mask large regional differences in coverage. 
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What we do
55,000
