water supply and sanitation in ethiopia water supply and sanitation in ethiopia access to water supply and sanitation in ethiopia is amongst the lowest in sub-saharan africa and the entire world. while access has increased substantially with funding from foreign aid, much still remains to be done. some factors inhibiting the achievement of these goals are the limited capacity of water bureaus in the country's nine regions, two city administrations and water desks in the 770 districts of ethiopia (woredas); insufficient cost recovery for proper operation and maintenance; and different policies and procedures used by various donors, notwithstanding the paris declaration on aid effectiveness. water supply and sanitation in ethiopiadatawater coverage (broad definition)38% (2008) or 68.5% (2010), depending on source and definitionsanitation coverage (broad definition)12% (2008) or 56% (2010), depending on source and definitioncontinuity of supplymostly intermittentaverage urban water use (l/person/day)30–60 (2006)average urban water and sanitation tariff (us$/m3)n/ashare of household meteringlowannual investment in wssus$1/capitashare of self-financing by utilitiesnilshare of tax-financinglowshare of external financinghighinstitutionsdecentralization to municipalitiessubstantial, since 1995national water and sanitation companynonewater and sanitation regulatornoneresponsibility for policy settingministry of water, irrigation and energysector lawn/ano. of urban service providersn/ano. of rural service providersn/a in 2001 the government adopted a water and sanitation strategy that called for more decentralized decision-making; promoting the involvement of all stakeholders, including the private sector; increasing levels of cost recovery; as well as integrating water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion activities. implementation of the policy apparently is uneven. in 2005 the government announced highly ambitious targets to increase coverage in its plan for accelerated sustained development and to end poverty (pasdep) for 2010. the investment needed to achieve the goal is about us$300 million per year, compared to actual investments of us$39 million in 2001–2002. in 2010 the government presented the equally ambitious growth and transformation plan (gtp) 2011–2015, which aims at increasing drinking water coverage, based on the government's definition, from 68.5% to 98.5%. while donors have committed substantial funds to the sector, effectively spending the money and to ensure the proper operation and maintenance of infrastructure built with these funds remain a challenge. water resources and use the major river in ethiopia is the blue nile. however, most drinking water in ethiopia comes from ground water, not rivers. ethiopia has 12 river basins with an annual runoff volume of 122 billion m3 of water and an estimated 2.6–6.5 billion m3 of ground water potential. this corresponds to an average of 1,575 m3 of physically available water per person per year, a relatively large volume. however, due to large spatial and temporal variations in rainfall and lack of storage, water is often not available where and when needed. only about 3% of water resources are used, of which only about 11% (0.3% of the total) is used for domestic water supply. the capital addis ababa's main source of drinking water is the gafsara dam built during the italian occupation and rehabilitated in 2009. wells and another dam complement the supply. this diagram shows the variability of rainfall in ethiopia, here in the case of the capital addis abeba. the city of dire dawa is supplied exclusively from groundwater that is highly polluted. the situation is most dramatic in harar where "a steady decrease of the level of lake alemaya has resulted in the complete closure of the treatment plant". due to supply shortfall, water vendors sell untreated water at extremely high prices. the lake dries up because of local climate change, changes in land use in its basin and increased irrigation of khat, a mild drug that is being grown for local consumption and export. a pipeline is expected to bring water over a distance of 75 km from a well field near dire dawa to harar. the great majority of the rural community water supply relies on groundwater through shallow wells, deep wells and springs. people who have no access to improved supply usually obtain water from rivers, unprotected springs and hand-dug wells. well, rivers and springs can be contaminated and can cause waterborne diseases. rainwater harvesting is also common. access according to the un-water, in 2017 only 11% of the population used a safely managed drinking water service on their premises. another 30% used a "basic service" (less than 30 minutes round trip for water collection), with the remainder having to rely on "limited service" (more than 30 minutes), "unimproved sources" (such as unprotected dug wells or springs) or surface water. only 7% of the population used a safely managed sanitation service, 7% only had "limited service" (latrines shared with other households), 63% had to rely on "unimproved service" (e.g. a simple pit or a bucket) and 22% defecate in the open. in communities that lack access to water on or close to their premises, women bear the brunt of the burden of collecting water. for example, according to an article by tina rosenberg for national geographic, in the mountain-top village foro in the konso special woreda of southwestern ethiopia women make three to five round trips per day to fetch dirty water from the koiro river. each roundtrip lasts two to three hours and water is carried in "50-pound jerrycans". service quality drinking water quality. drinking water quality in ethiopia varies. the most comprehensive picture of drinking water quality are the results of a national statistically representative survey of piped water supply, boreholes, protected dug wells and protected springs carried out by the who and unicef in 2004–2005. it shows that 72% of samples complied with the values for coliform bacteria in the ethiopian drinking water standard es 261:2001 and the who guidelines for drinking water. in the case of piped water supply by utilities compliance was highest at 88%. open wells and unprotected springs were not included in the survey. besides bacterial contamination, natural contamination with fluoride is an issue in the rift valley. the results of the survey confirm the results of routine monitoring undertaken in the laboratories of the regional water bureaus and the regional health bureaus. the latter results are archived at the ethiopian health and nutrition research institute. interaction and exchange of information between regional health bureaus and regional water bureaus is poor. children play by a newly installed hand pump in the village of jedane. other aspects of service quality'. in 2010, 20 percent of rural water systems were malfunctioning, down from 25% in 2007. about 35 percent of the estimated 30,000 hand pumps in ethiopia, serving an estimated 2 million people, were non-functioning in the mid-2000s. in piped water systems rationing and service interruptions are frequent. there are no wastewater treatment plants in ethiopia, so all wastewater collected in sewers is discharged without any treatment to the environment. responsibility for water supply and sanitation for more details see: regions of ethiopia in order to understand responsibilities in the sector it is necessary to provide a brief overview of local government in ethiopia. ethiopia is a federal state consisting of the following subdivisions: 10 ethnically based regions (kililoch), with a population between 200,000 and 25 million each; 68 zones, with a population between 100,000 and a few million each; 770 districts, with a population between 10,000 and more than 300,000 each, the largest ones being found in urban areas; many thousand kebeles, which constitute the smallest administrative units in ethiopia with a population of a few thousand each. in addition to the regions there are two “chartered cities”, (addis ababa and dire dawa), where the lower-level administrative units mentioned above do not exist. there is wide disparity in development and institutional capacity between regions and also within regions. the amhara, oromia, tigray regions as well as the small harari region are relatively developed. about 70% of ethiopians live in these four regions. the southern nations, nationalities, and peoples' region, where about 20% of the population lives, is very heterogeneous. in the more pastoralist and remote “emerging” regions somali, afar, gambela and benishangul-gumuz regions, where about 10% of the population lives, capacity tends to be lowest. policy and regulation there are strong national water supply and sanitation policies and key agencies have clear roles and strategies. national policies are set by the ministry of water, irrigation and energy (mwe), where a state minister is responsible for water supply and sanitation. previously, the ministry of health had been in charge of sanitation. as of 2009, what was then the ministry of water resources had 737 employees in eight departments and 10 "services". one of the eight departments was the water supply and sewerage department. in 2006 the government adopted a universal access plan (uap) to achieve 98% access for rural water supply and 100% access for urban water supply and sanitation by 2012. its cost was estimated at us$2.5bn. during the first phase until 2012 the focus is on affordable and appropriate technologies, with the following service standards: settingper capita consumptionservice radius rural15 litre/capita/day1.5 km urban20 litre/capita/day0.5 km in 2001 the government adopted a national water strategy prepared. the overall strategy included a water resources strategy, a hydropower development strategy, a water supply and sanitation strategy, and an irrigation strategy. the water supply and sanitation aimed at: more decentralized decision-making promoting the involvement of all stakeholders, including the private sector increasing levels of cost recovery integrating water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion activities. the strategy document does not include a diagnostic of the current situation. the water and sanitation part of the strategy alone includes 44 recommendations concerning technical, institutional, capacity building, social, economic and environmental issues. there is no prioritization between the recommendations and the strategy does not establish mechanisms to monitor the implementation of the strategy. regional water bureaus and woreda water desks are in charge of investment planning, monitoring and technical assistance to water service providers. their capacity to fulfill these tasks is sometimes limited. according to a research report funded by dfid, the community management service delivery approach that dominates in rural areas in ethiopia "has bypassed local government authorities and reduced their ownership; however these actors are still needed if rural services are to be sustainable and scalable." a public toilet at the adama university (nazret). this toilet uses the urine diversion technology that allows urine and feces to be collected separately as fertilizer. (source: susana secretariat) when it used to be in charge of on-site sanitation, the ministry of health adopted a sanitation and hygiene promotion strategy. the sanitation and hygiene promotion strategy has re-focused government resources on the promotion of pro-poor, low-cost practices. service provision in the capital, the addis ababa water and sewer authority provides water and sewer services. in other cities and towns, town water boards are responsible for service provision. they are expected to contract out service provision to private operators. in rural areas community water and sanitation committees operate water systems and promote sanitation. not all the local committees are registered, which is a prerequisite to open a bank account to hold funds collected from users. other the ethiopian social rehabilitation and development fund (ersdf) – a social fund established in 1996 and dissolved in 2007 – was an important actor, especially in rural areas. it has financed almost 2,000 rural water projects serving about 2.5 million people. its staff has been re-deployed to other institutions. history and recent developments until 1995 the national government had been responsible for centrally planning and implementing water and sanitation projects. under the 1995 constitution ethiopia became a federal state, which implied the decentralization of many functions to lower levels of government. this process has now been under way for more than a decade, but decentralization has been hampered by the limited capacity of local government to carry out its new responsibilities. also in 1995, a ministry of water resources was created, taking over many of the responsibilities of the water resources department of the former ministry of public works. in 1999 the government adopted a national water resources management policy, which was followed by the establishment of a water resources development fund (2002) and a water sector development program. the latter includes a water supply and sewerage development program (nota bene the focus on sewerage and thus the absence of on-site sanitation from the program). the government's plan for accelerated sustained development and to end poverty (padep), covering the period 2005–2010, aimed at increasing access to an improved water source