Ethiopia
Capital:
Addis Ababa
Population:
123.4 million
Area:
1,104,300
km2

How would you get clean water to the poorest and hardest to reach people? Put the systems in place for toilets to change lives day after day, year after year? Make sure people can practise good hygiene when climate change brings disaster?

These are some of the challenges we face in Ethiopia, a dry country vulnerable to climate change. Almost half of the country’s 123.4 million people don’t have clean water.

But Ethiopia has made impressive progress over the past 20 years. It achieved the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target to halve the number of people without clean water.

We will build on our strong reputation in Ethiopia to reach everyone with clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene. Together with the government, businesses and you, we will make a bigger difference. A lasting difference.

people don't have access to clean water close to home.

That's almost half the population.

people don't have a decent toilet of their own.

That's nine in ten people.

children under the age of five die each year from diarrhoea

caused by dirty water, and poor toilets and hygiene.

Reaching rural Ethiopia

Image: Behailu Shiferaw
We drank whatever was available to us – rivers, streams, rain, floods – anything that was accessible and came in the form of water, we used. It made us sick though.
Ferenji Amenji, 81

Ferenji's village is small, home to fewer than 200 people. Here, drinking dirty water was a normal part of life. “We didn’t get to pick and choose what water we drank,” he explains. “People got sick all the time.”

We helped bring clean water to Ferenji’s village using a 400-metre pipe from a clean spring on a hill. A concrete top protects it from animals and floods. It ensures that the water piped down to the centre of the village remains clean.

81-year-old Ferenji is thrilled about the water supply. He says, “I will die knowing my children will have water in their village.”

13 years of clean water

What can you remember about 2004? For Mehari, it was the year clean water first arrived in his village. Catch up with him, 13 years after that life-changing moment.

Priest Mehari stands by the front of his church in 2004, the year clean water arrived in his village in Northern Ethiopia.
Image: WaterAid/Caroline Irby

Ready to make a difference? Donate to WaterAid and help change someone's life.

Follow

Keep up to date with WaterAid Ethiopia on social media.

Give an unforgettable gift

We've got the perfect presents for every occasion in our Shop for Life.