Ethiopia Program Update: May 2010

Safe Water is Flowing in Bishikiltu

The walk for water has finally come to an end for the women and girls of Bishikiltu. In February 2010, safe water began flowing to 12 public tap stands serving 4,250 residents of this poor, agricultural community in Oromia, Ethiopia. Thank you for your special contribution to this project. The water system is now owned and operated by the community. A water management committee has been established and trained in all the tasks associated with the long-term operation of the system.

Project Details

The water source is a series of springs that have been capped to protect the quality of the water. Two of the springs fill a 6,500-gallon collection chamber. The water in the collection chamber is pumped up to a 20,000-gallon storage/distribution tank. From there, the water flows to eight public tap stands, including one at the local school. Four additional tap stands are connected directly to the springs. They operate entirely on a gravity-flow basis, which minimizes operating costs. The system employs eight miles of distribution pipeline.

Community members contributed the unskilled labor needed to implement the project. The most time consuming activity was digging and backfilling six miles of pipeline trench.

Community members contributed the labor to dig the trench and bury the pipe. Community members pay for the water they use. Beneficiaries are happy to pay 2 cents per 5-gallon container, which the water management committee established as the necessary rate to cover all the operating and maintenance costs of the system and build a savings account for future expansion. The taps are open a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the afternoon to allow the tap attendants to accomplish other tasks during the day.

Sanitation and Hygiene Education

The water supply element of our projects absorbs most of the project budget and is the most visually compelling. However, the sanitation and hygiene-education elements are equally significant in improving the health of community members. The goal of the hygiene-education program is to teach each household the most important and effective behaviors for safeguarding their health.

Hygiene promoters emphasize activities such as frequent hand washing, constructing and using latrines, keeping yards free of animal waste, and using the tap water for all cleaning purposes (bathing, dish washing, and clothes washing). The hygiene promoters are also the tap attendants. This allows them an opportunity to reinforce the hygiene messages with at least one member of each household on a daily basis. One measure of the effectiveness of the program is the adoption of household latrines. Our partner organization reported that latrine coverage increased from 6% to 80% during the project implementation period. Hygiene promoters will continue to encourage the remaining 20% to build latrines.

A major focus of the project was to get community members, like Asafa and Obse above, to build and use hygienic latrines. Latrine ownership increased from 6% to 80% in two years.

It is important to implement water supply, sanitation, and hygiene education at the same time because they are all dependent on one another. If women must carry the water long distances, it is unrealistic to expect they will be able to bathe the kids frequently or use clean water to wash clothes. If you have provided clean water for drinking and cooking, but you haven’t improved hygiene, many pathways of disease transmission remain open and health outcomes aren’t significantly improved.

Your Contribution Has Transformed Lives

Your investment in the Bishikiltu project was the most effective way to impact the life of the beneficiaries. You have improved their health, increased their productivity, and helped them develop skills needed to address other critical needs. Thank you for your generous support. If you would like to see your contribution in action, contact Kirk Anderson (206-297-3024) and ask about the next Ethiopia Water Tour. According to many of our Water Tour participants, it is a life-changing experience.