A UNICEF rural water and sanitation programme ensures a healthy life in Ethiopia

By Araya Mengistu

Misra Redwan unloads a water jerrycan she just collected from a newly built water point by UNICEF with the support of DFATD. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2016/Sewunet

For the community in Lode Lemofo Kebele, Sire Woreda in the Arsi Zone of the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia, access to water was an ongoing problem. During the annual dry seasons in this hot, low-land area, community members had to walk for hours under a blazing sun just to get water.

In January 2016, the communities of Lode Lemofo and neighbouring Chenge Kebeles have seen a marked improvement in their day-to-day lives, thanks to a water supply project that was commissioned and constructed with UNICEF support. About 6,500 people in two Kebeles, particularly the 3,250 women and girls who are usually charged with collecting water for household use, are reaping the benefits of improved access to clean and safe water, including increased school attendance among children.

Yesunesh lives with her husband Getachew, and 10 year old daughter Genet and 2 year old son Samuel in Lode Lemofo. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2016/Sewunet

Lode Lemofo community member Yesunesh, mother of 10-year-old Genet and two-year-old Samuel, says, “Fetching water used to be the most demanding task we had to endure on a daily basis. Sometimes we had to do it twice a day. It is very tiring and takes up to three hours to and from the river. At times it is also dangerous, because sometimes hyenas try to attack us or our donkeys.”

The lack of access to water also affected health centres and schools.  Communities had to support the provision of water in these facilities themselves. Visiting patients and members of neighbouring households carried water to health centres while school girls and boys carried water to school on a daily basis.

All this has changed when the new water supply scheme became operational. The scheme draws its source from a 265-metre deep well and includes 16 kilometres of pipe network, 11 water distribution points and a 100,000-litre reservoir. One primary school and one health centre have also been connected to the water distribution system.

Yesunesh underscores the difference the scheme has made, saying, “All that suffering is now gone. My girl Genet – as you have seen – can get the water we need for cooking and other household use in less than ten minutes.”

Health centres can now provide better care to community members, particularly pregnant women, while boys and girls are better able to learn at school.

In total, 24 other Woredas in Oromia Regional State are benefitting from UNICEF’s water and sanitation programme. This is part of the overall progress in water and sanitation in Ethiopia, where 57 per cent of the population now relies on improved water supply sources such as water taps or hand pumps, rather than unprotected and risky sources such as rivers and streams. This increased access to clean and safe water has benefitted the children of Ethiopia tremendously, contributing to the reduction of under-five child mortality by two-thirds and the significant reduction of child stunting.

UNICEF, WHO: Lack of sanitation for 2.4 billion people undermining health improvements

A south Sudanese refugee Nvakuache Tut takes a shower by the way of water poured from a jerry can. 26, June 2014 Burbie South Sudanese Refugees Reception Centre Gambella Ethiopia. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2014/Ayene

Final MDG progress report on water and sanitation released 

NEW YORK/GENEVA, 30 June 2015 – Lack of progress on sanitation threatens to undermine the child survival and health benefits from gains in access to safe drinking water, warn WHO and UNICEF in a report tracking access to drinking water and sanitation against the Millennium Development Goals.

The Joint Monitoring Programme report, Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2015 Update and MDG Assessment, says worldwide, 1 in 3 people, or 2.4 billion, are still without sanitation facilities – including 946 million people who defecate in the open. 

“What the data really show is the need to focus on inequalities as the only way to achieve sustainable progress,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, head of UNICEF’s global water, sanitation and hygiene programmes. “The global model so far has been that the wealthiest move ahead first, and only when they have access do the poorest start catching up. If we are to reach universal access to sanitation by 2030, we need to ensure the poorest start making progress right away.”

Access to improved drinking water sources has been a major achievement for countries and the international community. With some 2.6 billion people having gained access since 1990, 91 per cent of the global population now have improved drinking water – and the number is still growing. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, 427 million people have gained access – an average of 47,000 people per day every day for 25 years.

The child survival gains have been substantial. Today, fewer than 1,000 children under five die each day from diarrhoea caused by inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene, compared to over 2,000 15 years ago.

On the other hand, the progress on sanitation has been hampered by inadequate investments in behaviour change campaigns, lack of affordable products for the poor, and social norms which accept or even encourage open defecation. Although some 2.1 billion people have gained access to improved sanitation since 1990, the world has missed the MDG target by nearly 700 million people. Today, only 68 per cent of the world’s population uses an improved sanitation facility – 9 percentage points below the MDG target of 77 per cent. 

“Until everyone has access to adequate sanitation facilities, the quality of water supplies will be undermined and too many people will continue to die from waterborne and water-related diseases,” said Dr Maria Neira, Director of the WHO Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health. 

Access to adequate water, sanitation and hygiene is critical in the prevention and care of 16 of the 17 ‘neglected tropical diseases’ (NTDs), including trachoma, soil-transmitted helminths (intestinal worms) and schistosomiasis. NTDs affect more than 1.5 billion people in 149 countries, causing blindness, disfigurement, permanent disability and death.

The practice of open defecation is also linked to a higher risk of stunting – or chronic malnutrition – which affects 161 million children worldwide, leaving them with irreversible physical and cognitive damage.

“To benefit human health it is vital to further accelerate progress on sanitation, particularly in rural and underserved areas,” added Dr Neira.

Rural areas are home to 7 out of 10 people without access to improved sanitation and 9 out of 10 people who defecate in the open. 

Plans for the new Sustainable Development Goals to be set by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015 include a target to eliminate open defecation by 2030. This would require a doubling of current rates of reduction, especially in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, WHO and UNICEF say. 

WHO and UNICEF say it is vitally important to learn from the uneven progress of the 1990-2015 period to ensure that the SDGs close the inequality gaps and achieve universal access to water and sanitation. To do so, the world needs:

• Disaggregated data to be able to pinpoint the populations and areas which are outliers from the national averages;
• A robust and intentional focus on the hardest to reach, particularly the poor in rural areas;
• Innovative technologies and approaches to bring sustainable sanitation solutions to poor communities at affordable prices;
• Increased attention to improving hygiene in homes, schools and health care facilities.

Mobile Technology Aids Ethiopian National WASH Inventory (NWI)

By Nadine Tatge

Ethiopia is making great progress in measuring access to water and sanitation as well as inventorying all water schemes in the country through the National WASH Inventory (NWI).

Previous data collection methods using paper-based surveys were extremely time consuming, involved huge costs, and had a high error rate.

That is why the Government of Ethiopia has piloted the new data collection method using smart mobile phones in one of Ethiopia’s nine regions, the Somali Region.

The software used was developed by the Dutch foundation AKVO using the AKVO flow system. Despite battery charging and internet challenges in the region, the new technology has been proven successful. Trained enumerators would collect data from households and visit water points, entering the data directly into previously uploaded survey forms on the mobile phone.

Additionally, they save the exact GPS location of water points and take pictures of the water points. Huge amounts of data can be stored safely on mobile phones until the data is uploaded to a central online server (the cloud/dashboard). The transfer of data requires internet access through either a WiFi , 3G on the phone, or through a PC connected to the internet.

Everyone with granted access to the cloud/dashboard can view the data, extract it in Excel sheets, visualise the data in pie charts and graphs and most importantly see the exact location of water points on maps.

The experience from the Somali Region has shown that the use of smart mobile phones for data collection is time saving, accurate and cost efficient. The Government of Ethiopia has therefore decided to upscale the Somali experience to the rest of the country with the goal of having updated access of data for the NWI until June 2015.

 

 

Innovative One WASH for Sustainable Development: Ethiopia

On the 4th and 5th of February, 2014 the Ethiopia Water and Sanitation (WASH) met at the Ghion Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the 6^th Annual Multi-Stakeholder Forum with the theme of “Innovative One WASH for Sustainable Development”. It was a huge event with about 500 participants from Government, NGO, private and donor sectors.

Excellency Federal Minister of Water Irrigation and Energy, Ato Alemayhu Tegene

The event was graced by the presence of  Excellency Federal Minister of Water Irrigation and Energy, Ato Alemayhu Tegene, Excellency State Minister of Water Irrigation and Energy, Ato Kebede Gerba, Excellency State Minister of Education, Ato Fuad Ibrahim and Excellency State Minister of Health, Dr. Kebede Worku.

Among the many discussions the ONE WASH Sector Wide Approach dominated the discussion. The participants agreed more focus is needed on urban WASH and sustainability monitoring and UNICEF and WHO need to provide a measurement of where the country is pre 2015 Millennium Development Goals.

During his keynote speech, UNICEF Representative to Ethiopia and DAG WASH Sector Working Group co-chair, Dr. Peter Salama made three points that are crucial to fulfil the remaining commitments to improve access to safe water and sanitation. And one of his points read “we need to reinforce our efforts in addressing open defecation in urban areas.”

“The Government of Ethiopia has pledged to the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) to achieve 82 per cent open defecation free Ethiopia by 2015. This ambitious goal requires the sector to devise and implement a comprehensive Urban Sanitation Strategy which provides clear guidance on the minimum package for urban sanitation including faecal, liquid and solid waste management and disposal. UNICEF, DFID, JICA and other partners are committed to support the Government in prioritizing urban sanitation. As noted in the ONE WASH programme document, to improve WASH services in small towns, for example, will require an additional US$96 million for sanitation in the coming 5 years. We call upon all partners to join hands with us on this game changing strategy to make Ethiopia open defection free.”