Growing gains

WaterAid and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church have helped many communities in Tigray gain access to water, sanitation and hygiene education. Here children at the Hiwane elementary school wash their hands at their new tapstand.

Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

For communities whose villages perch within the ancient mountain landscape of Tigray in Ethiopia collecting water can take many hours a day. Here, Tamsin Maunder explores how life has changed in Adiger since a new water source has been built.

Eighteen year old Letekirus Hagus from the village remembers what life was like before: "In earlier times we had one spring which is one and a half hours walk away but it dries in the dry season," she explains.

Walking to this source twice every single day meant she spent six hours collecting water for her family. "We felt tired," she continues. "We hated that activity - it was a real hardship."

The community worked with WaterAid's partner the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and together constructed a new gravity-flow water system. Through this simple technology, mountain springs are protected and the clean water is piped down through a series of concrete storage tanks to the villages below where people
can collect it from tapstands close to their homes.

Letekirus collects water at the new tapstand.

Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

Letekirus is a member of the water and sanitation committee that played a key role in the project. "My responsibility was mobilising the community in the project implementation and assigning individuals to work on different activities - excavating the trench and transporting the pipes." she explains.

"We are really happy getting this water. We have got a lot of advantages from it. The children were really suffering due to the lack of water and sometimes they suffered skin diseases because they were not clean, but now we are able to wash them whenever we want."

As well as better health, one of the biggest changes is the amount of additional time Letekirus has. Collecting water from the new taps now takes her a few minutes each time. So, how does she utilise the six hours each day that she previously spent on an arduous trek for water?

"First I manage my animals," she says. "Second I have started growing vegetables. I plant, I cultivate and I have a special market day and sell it. So most of my time I use in vegetable production."

But it is not only Letekirus who has benefited - she also described the changes for the rest of her family. "My four brothers and sisters attended school, but before the water scheme they were suffering as they had a problem washing their clothes regularly. But now they are washing their clothes and they can go to school with full confidence because they are clean."

While Letekirus hopes to continue in her role on the committee and wants to help her community in its future development, for now she exclaims: "Really, I feel happy. We have got clean water, we have started using pit latrines and in addition to this, before the scheme we had no experience of growing vegetables so we have started growing them. Somebody has told me that people are starting to name their children after plants!"

Let's hope that these children and the future generations in Adiger will grow up healthy and strong with a brighter future thanks to the clean water supply.

By Tamsin Maunder, WaterAid's Communications Services Manager. Original interview by Sadie Ramm of Ecover UK.

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