BY DIRRIBA TESHOME
Poor sanitation is one of the most accurate indicators of urban poverty and health problems. And according to World Health Organization (WHO), over 600 million urbanites live in low quality shelters or other areas plagued by overcrowding and inadequate provision of sanitation services, including portable water and social services.
In the next three decades, 2.5 billion people will migrate into the world’s urban areas from which 90 percent of them are in Africa and Asia. As a result, rapid urbanization will pose development challenges unlike those the global community has faced in the past according to USAID studies.
Accordingly, urban population has been growing at the average of 5.84 percent for years (1961-2013), which is equivalent to 756 additional people to the urban centers daily in Ethiopia. Throughout the nation, 1935 centers are recognized as urban or towns. Due to this, urban is contributing 60 percent GDP throughout the world while that of Ethiopia is about 40 percent.
There are three drivers of urbanization. Transformation of rural kebeles, migration and demographic change are the basic drivers for urbanization.
For Abraham Misganaw, Basic Sanitation National Coordinator under Hygiene and Environmental Health Directorate at the Ministry of Health, the current situation in Ethiopian towns is characterized by insufficient level of services, inadequate knowledge on how to manage wastes and unplanned industrialization polluting land, air and waters. It is also categorized by scarce and unsustainable waste collection and disposal systems resulted in serious effects.
According to him, health and quality of life indicators show in most Ethiopian cities poor sanitation conditions are causing serious threats to life. Ethiopian population growth rate 2.8 percent. And the population living in slum condition is 70 percent from which 60 percent is living in rental houses while 50 percent share toilet.
Urban population has doubled and is predicted to triple from 15.2 million in 2012 to 42 million by 2037. As it was estimated, in 2020, one in five Ethiopians lives in urban areas and by 2030 50 percent of the country’s population will be living in urban centers. Therefore, the pace, scale and density of Ethiopia’s urban growth needs urgent paradigm shift in sanitation management.
Ethiopia has been facilitating for urban sanitation. For instance, Ethiopia is a member of UN world Toilet Day, Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) Partnership, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), Africa Agenda 2063, Global WASH Pilot Program Implementation and
Abraham also lists some of the interventions done so far by Ethiopian government. In 2016, IUSH strategy developed and endorsed by 7 sectors. Memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between sectors and agencies. Specific documents and MoU were cascaded to states. In the same way, steering and technical committees were established at federal, state and town levels.
Additionally, action points were included in annual plan and alignment done with states while IUSH is under implementation in 23 towns. And 124 small and 20 medium towns public and communal latrine were constructed. Advocacy workshops were conducted for Addis Ababa sub city health professionals besides the training given to 7,874 urban health professionals and supervisors.
Trainings have also been conducted on waste management technology options. With respect to physical intervention under One Wash National Program alone 163 Public latrines have been constructed and 94 Communal latrines have constructed and emergency prone areas were mapped and pre-emergency interventions done like 16 holy water sites.
Furthermore, he adds that sanitation training has been given to environmental health professionals besides campaigns are being done and planned for consistency. Urban Health Conferences were held and municipalities have shared their experiences to other towns. Hygiene and environmental sanitation assessment was done in 18 cities and 63 towns are selected to implement the strategy as pilot areas for urban transformation.
Plus to these, trainings were given for 63 town mayors & health offices, implementation manual. Best experiences were documented and shared. As a result most towns start practicing solid waste collection through organized micro enterprises. And Job Creation and Food Security Agency runs urban sanitation program in eleven towns.
Additionally, public awareness is created on Solid Waste Management, greenery & beautification of cities and towns. For this reason, urban residents have started collecting wastes to transfer station that has begun insisting municipalities to plan huge budget on solid waste collection, transport and disposal. And private sector involvement on solid waste collection is increasing.
Moreover, waste separation, reuse and recycling processes are also started by some companies. Most of the cities have also controlled open dumpsites for waste disposal with constructing sanitary and controlled land fill.
In more than 11 cities sanitary land fill constructed; but except Adigrat, Bishoftu, Semera and Debre Markos others changes to open dumpsite. Solid waste sites are also used as sludge dumping sites with few health and safety controls. Addis Ababa waste water treatment plant constructed and national water scheme inventory conducted are also among the worth mentioning activities government has been doing to provide healthy hygiene to the urban residents.
Even more to the detail, Abraham says that the government has allocated huge budgets for urban sanitation projects such as: 23 Big Towns Sanitation Project 450 mln USD, Sanitation Services Improvement in Addis Ababa 224.6 million USD, Operational efficiency improvements in Addis Ababa 33.1 million USD in collaboration with development partners.
Equally, the projects: Project Management & Institutional Strengthening in Addis Ababa (US$2.3 mln) and Sanitation Services Improvement in Secondary Cities Project 196 million USD. It is also working on None Renewable Waste Reduction and Management, financial management, improving sewer connections and fleet management systems. Water supply and operational efficiency improvement in 2nd cities is also budget with 36.8 mln USD.
In the same way, Abraham says the government is also working effectively to manage industrial wastes. All industries are given 5 years to comply with the Industrial Waste Management Proclamation No.159/200. Over thirty thousand small and medium factories were inspected against standards that led to the closure of 55 and 1463 preliminary caution. As well, 24 projects ESIA and 11 leather factories were inspected leading to the end of four factories.
Social and environmental standards were also set for flower farms besides the two environmental and health risk assessments done in flower factories. Similarly 72 plastic producing factories inspected leading to the correction measure given to 51of them.
Air pollution is also given attention that 24 institutions were inspected for it. And 151 institutions were inspected for sound pollution and measures were taken. Alike to these, clean and green economy climate resilience strategies are developed.
Although these promising activities are being done, there is much insufficiency, Abraham says. For example, according to the report of the Ministry of Health, only 20 percent of Ethiopians use standard toilet while 40 percent local districts (Kebeles) are free from open defecation. and the healthy solid and liquid waste management is only 11 percent each.
The Ethiopian herald December 22/2020
