Heriya Mohammed has lived in Butajira town, Guragie zone of SNNP regional state for more than 40 years. Heriya says access to pure water in the town has been unthinkable for several years. The people travel a long distance for over 40 minutes to fetch water from the nearby two rivers, Risha and Rinza.
Since the river water is not clean for drink and sanitary purposes, the people in general and women in particular were seriously affected by shortage of water. Moreover, young children were also affected by Cholera, Typhoid, Bilharzia, due to the shortage of pure water.
In collaboration with other stakeholders, the town administration works on the provision of adequate pure water to the society. But, the town has been carrying out additional water expansion projects to address water shortage required for development and household consumption.
Kemal Kedir, Job Coordinator at Butajira Water Supply & Sewerage Enterprise, said that even if there had been water shortage six years ago, the administration of the town is now providing adequate pure water for residents by loan obtained from financial institutions.
According to Kemal, maternal death was common during the past many years due to the absence of pure water in the time of giving birth. Therefore, pregnant women were forced to walk far to the adjacent town called Hosanna to get healthcare service. But, the bad news was that many mothers had been passed away before appearing the hospital.
Currently, Butajira Water Supply and Sewerage Enterprise has only 11,000 customers, from the total population of over 100,000. As part of this, the town has five deep water shades which could give 68 liters per second in which three of them are still functional.
On the other hand, the Enterprise is now reinforcing service provider institutions like hospitals and hotels to drill out water shades by themselves. In so doing, they would not consume communities’ part as well.
Regarding its feasibility, Kedir said that the cost of drilling a single water shade was about 3.1 million Birr last year, but has now risen to 11 million birr. Therefore, it may pose serious challenge to address public demand in relation to access to pure water. Therefore, relentless commitment from the society and donor organizations like World Bank is a good opportunity to provide pure water permanently.
Wanna Wake, Director General at Water Resources Development Fund, on his part, said that pure water provision service was started in 2002 fiscal year. The fund will be used for the development of pure water and sanitation in towns, financing irrigation, and ensuring food security at a larger scale.
According to the Director General, the sources of the fund will be from foreign loan and donation from WB, IMF, European International Bank, AfDB and the like. In this regard, the country has planned to address 106 towns in GTPII. In the future, the government allocates 10 billion birr to reach at 114 towns. Out of 104 towns, 41 of them have accomplished their task of drilling water shades, while 27 towns are on the way of refunding the loan.
In fact, there are more than 2,000 towns with over 10,000 residents each in Ethiopia. It shows that providing adequate pure water and sanitation service is becoming critical to ensure the overall development of the country.
Deputy Manager at Hosanna Water Supply & Sewerage, Tilahun Kebede said that providing adequate pure water in the town is very difficult due to high demand, particularly in this rapid population growth.
According to Tilahun, the town has had critical problem of access to adequate pure water over the last nine years is recognizable. The World Bank, communities’ participation, and government subsidiary have indispensable role to ensure the provision of proper pure water and sanitation service.
Currently, Hosanna town has more than 185,000 residents; which got 45 percent of the demand (less than 1,000 mm cubic water per day only). Then, undertaking many activities, the town has now generating more than 6,000 mm cubic per day or reach on 94 percent. In so doing, it is important to work as fast as the increasing population density, Tilahun explained.
In sum, the town has now started drilling six water shades to achieve 100 percent of water coverage. Out of six shades, three of them are completed with a net cost of 12 million birr. The rest will be finalized through community based initiative and the loan obtained from donors. To make this happen, the town has engaged in networking with various institutions to get support in the provision of adequate pure water for the society and the intended development goals, Tilahun stated.
The Ethiopian Herald January4, 2019
BY MESERET BEHAILU
