WaterAid.org in Ethiopia from their Website

Ethiopia, the fourth largest and second most populous country in Africa. It is Africa's oldest independent country and, with the exception of a five-year occupation by Mussolini's Italy, has never been colonised.

Despite a rich and unique religious and cultural history it has become better known for its periodic droughts and famines, and for its long civil war and subsequent border conflict with Eritrea.

Though improving, literacy levels in Ethiopia are still low and Ethiopia remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with an economy that is highly dependent on agriculture. Ethiopia is still among the least well served countries in the world in terms of water and sanitation. Water-related diseases are rife, child mortality high and health services are limited.

Achievements to date:
-Helped over 820,000 people gain access to safe water
-Helped establish the local NGO Water Action and supported the formation of the water unit of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Inter Church Aid Commission
-Influenced the development of water projects managed by community boards and is seen as the main proponent of large sustainable gravity flow water schemes in the country
-Coordinated WASH Ethiopia, a country-wide water, sanitation and hygiene movement linked to the international Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council
-Helped set up and now hosts the Ethiopian Country Water Partnership (ECWP), the Ethiopian branch of the Global Water Partnership, an international network focused on promoting integrated water resource management
-Piloted rope pumps and composting latrines

WaterAid helps some of the poorest people in Ethiopia set up and maintain their own water, sanitation and hygiene projects.

We started funding projects in Ethiopia in 1983 and began working through established non governmental organizations (NGOs) in 1986. A country office was set up in 1991 and two sub-offices opened in Benishangul Gumuz and Oromia Regions in 2004 and 2005.

We work closely with eight local NGOs, the local private sector and local and regional government departments in water, sanitation and hygiene projects. We also work with a wide range of other organisations in networks to influence water and sanitation policies.

Our aim is to improve the livelihoods of poor people in Ethiopia through the provision of safe water, sanitation and hygiene education using technologies that are appropriate to local conditions, affordable and easy to maintain. However, projects vary from region to region depending on the natural environment which varies greatly.

Most Ethiopians live in densely-populated arable plateau lands of middle-altitude. However, the country includes some of the highest peaks in Africa with scattered rural communities living in the cold highlands at over 2000 metres above sea level.

Many lowland pastoral communities live in the sparse arid semi-deserts of the east, while hunter-gatherers and shifting cultivators still live in forested parts of the south and west of the country.

In Oromia Region, water projects tend to be spring-fed gravity schemes; some of which are very large, providing water for tens of thousands of people. In Southern Nations and Nationality People's Region schemes have included deep boreholes as water is sometimes only found below 200 metres.

In Amhara and Tigray the main technologies so far have been hand-dug wells and spot spring development where springs are simply tapped and protected at their source. In Benishangul Gumuz, as well as hand-dug wells, WaterAid is testing simpler and cheaper rope pumps.

In its sanitation and hygiene education work WaterAid and its partners have been involved in supporting the construction and use of latrines for both households and institutions, particularly schools. Latrines vary from simple pit latrines to composting latrines, bio-gas, mobile toilets and ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines.

Hygiene education has increasingly focused on the close links between proper handwashing at critical times, like before eating and after going to the toilet, and improved health, particularly in reducing the numbers of young children that die from diarrhoeal diseases.

In all cases WaterAid works closely with communities from the start, to raise awareness of how water and sanitation impact on disease and poverty. Communities are also actively involved in the planning, building, managing and evaluation of projects. Particular attention is now being paid to engaging women in projects and increasing the ways in which the poorest and most marginalised in society, including the elderly and those suffering with HIV/AIDS, can be supported.

Despite recent progress, communication systems are still poor and road coverage one of the worst in the world. It is therefore not uncommon for partner organisations to facilitate building access roads so that they can transport materials at the beginning of a project.

This is not only in remote regions - WaterAid has also encountered this within 250 kilometres of the capital Addis Ababa. The need to ensure an effective supply chain that can deliver spare parts through government or private sector involvement is another challenge facing the sustainability of projects.

Although WaterAid mainly works in rural areas, since 1998 it has been engaged in the slum areas of Addis Ababa, and urban initiatives in other towns are also expanding. Projects include establishing communal water points linked to the city's piped systems, wastewater management, shower and latrine blocks and mobile toilets managed together with small kiosks by ex-homeless young people.

Where there are very few public toilets these fill a critical gap in the sanitation services for urban people.

For more information please visit www.wateraid.org.