A message from Hitosa

Local people have been trained in the upkeep and maintenance of the scheme.

Credit: WaterAid / Caroline Penn

By Jules Acton, WaterAid's Senior Press Officer

The Hitosa gravity flow project in central Ethiopia is one of WaterAid's largest schemes. Water from two springs has been tapped and runs downhill in pipelines to waterpoints in the heart of 31 villages and towns providing 60,000 people with access to safe water.

Working with its partner, WaterAction, WaterAid trained local people to install and maintain the scheme. Six years ago, once sure of its sustainability, WaterAid stopped working in the area and now visits regularly to check the scheme is running smoothly.

On a recent visit Jules Acton met Haji Gebi Hayi, WaterAid beneficiary and current Chairman of the Water Management Board in Iteya town. Haji asked her to bring this message back to WaterAid supporters:

"I would like to send a thank you to everyone at WaterAid. Before the water scheme people didn't like living here. People used to have to walk for 20km to fill their jerry cans with 20 litres of water.

We used to travel through the night to collect water and sometimes people were attacked by wild animals. Mothers gave birth on route and small children were left at home.

Water was so scarce that sometimes people would borrow water the way they borrowed money. I remember one incident when a woman went to collect water from 20km away.

On the way back she was nearly at home when she broke her pot. She had already borrowed water from a neighbour. She couldn't repay the water and she couldn't give her children anything to drink. And she also didn't have any money for a new pot. She committed suicide.

Those problems and the water related diseases have now gone and it is sad to think that the people who aren't with us any more can't see how Iteya is today. People are 100% happier.

The water has stimulated agriculture too because, before, if a farmer ploughed his farm one day, the next day he would go to look for water. Now the farmers go to work every day. Children go to school every day too and we now have a high school and an elementary school.

The area has been reclassified as a district and we are active in politics - I am a member of the Oromo State Council. We have learned many skills. We have technicians, health people and we do the sanitation and hygiene work. We have finance people and we also do all the administrative work here. We had training for this.

We are doing everything for ourselves now. Sometimes people from the Government ask for our assistance with these skills and there are even notions now that some water services - government ones - will be managed like this scheme.

Since WaterAid left the project we have created new waterpoints and we are even starting to tap into new springs. When it was built this pipeline scheme was planned to last a certain number of years and we now have to think about depreciation - we are saving some money for the rehabilitation of the pipework.

We are also able to lend money to health and school projects.

This is normal life now. Thanks to WaterAid, instead of people going out to search for water, the water comes to find people in their homes through the pipes. Water is the source of every living thing. Water is life. Everyday we remember WaterAid. Thank you."

Find out more about our work in Ethiopia