Ethiopia Well Rehab Program

This program is designed to help the people of Ethiopia by rehabilitating wells and repairing pumps across the country. It is made possible through the partnership of Water Charity and the National Peace Corps Association.

ETHIOPIA Population: 90 million people 54% do not have access to safe water 89% do not have access to adequate sanitation 39% live below the poverty line Life Expectancy:  55 years GNI Per Capita:  $280 USD 443 Million:  The number of school days lost worldwide each year to water-related diseases 1.8 Million:  Additional number of people estimated to lack access to clean water in 2016 in Ethiopia due to El Nino related drought

The program will begin with the West Arsi region of Ethiopia.  Arsi Negele Woreda is located in the Great Rift Valley, an area of southern Ethiopia susceptible to drought and famine.  Water is, and remains, one of the most crucial issues of concern for these remote regions of Ethiopia.  People resort to drawing water from muddy pits and are subject to a large variety of waterborne illnesses.

Due to El Nino related weather effects in the fall of 2015, Arsi Negele has been hit hard by drought.  This drought is widely affecting the southern region of Ethiopia and in particular Arsi Negele.  Traditionally, people living in Arsi Negele have collected water from traditional water sources, such as ponds and rivers, or some villages have been fortunate enough to have shallow wells drilled with hand pumps.  Traditional sources are not protected and the unclean water causes numerous health problems for the local communities.  Due to the drought, even these sources began to fail in the fall of 2015.  The combined effects of the failure of traditional water sources, as well as exacerbated problems related to the drought, have caused a serious and perilous water shortage in Arsi Negele.

This program will encompass the following 6 villages to start. Each of the villages delineated below will have their own projects under this program.  Furthermore, after these first 6 villages are served, Water Charity intends to continue the program in other needy locations, finding as many wells that need rehabilitation as we can.

With this program, six existing wells that are currently nonfunctioning will be rehabilitated.  The objective of well rehabilitation is to improve well performance, increase well capacity, clear silt deposits built up in the well, remove mineral build up encrusted on the pump screen, and repair or replace existing pumps.  This is a way of utilizing work already done in order to provide clean water at a lower cost.  By repairing or replacing hand pumps, we can serve as many people as a new well would at a fraction of the cost.

The well rehabilitation program will be followed by a further effort to drill 20 new shallow wells to serve the needs of the population, as well as finding more wells to rehabilitate

For this project, Water Charity is partnering with the local NGO WiLI (Water Is Life International), an organization active in the creation and support of Sustainable Living Groups (SLGs), as well as the improvement of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) practices. SLGs are community-based savings and credit institutions that are autonomous and completely managed by the poor themselves.

As they mature, eight to twelve SLGs may be organized into Cluster Level Associations (CLAs) to form the second institution of support.  They also create a stimulating context for new learning of healthy behaviors and practices such as drinking from improved water sources, using latrines, washing hands and managing microenterprises. These new behaviors drastically reduce the incidence of waterborne disease and put people on the path toward better economic and social development.

WiLi has been working in Ethiopia since 2006 and has constructed over 300 wells, provided WaSH training for each community receiving a well and established over 400 SLGs that have transformed the lives of tens of thousands of Ethiopians.  These engagements are managed and implemented through a network of partnerships that builds the capacity of Ethiopians to address these challenging issues.

The powerful establishment of a thriving SLG program has brought dignity, hope, and economic empowerment to thousands in the region. To build on established relationships and achievements to continue these positive trends this project will strengthen the SLG program and the formation of CLAs, increase the number of safe water wells, and bring the nexus of these activities together through WaSH training and educational programs.

The great need in West Arsi continues to be a call for action and response, and WiLi and Water Charity want to continue the vision of long-term development investment and involvement in West Arsi.  A cost-effective approach to providing clean and sustainable water to a community is to rehabilitate already existing wells and hand pumps.

Summary of Program Objectives 
Rehabilitate 6 wells in the region near Lake Langano, in order to ensure a safe, accessible and sustainable source of potable water to approximately 500 people per well.

Well rehabilitations are a cost-effective way to renew a clean water source within a community.

• Subsequently, Drill 20 new shallow wells.
• Support the continued training activities of the SLG program into CLAs in order to benefit over 5,500 SLG members and their families.
• Observe improved sanitation and hygiene behaviors within SLGs, such as Open Defecation Free communities and consistent handwashing, through hygiene and sanitation training.
• Introduce the use of bio-sand filters.
• Build the capacity of the SLG institutions to better serve themselves and become leaders in their own transformation.

Ideally, this program will scale up to include more villages and regions afield from Wes Arsi, but this program, as big as it ever gets, will be focused on this efficient model, and the tangible goal of making life better for the people of this, and other difficult regions in Ethiopia.

Program Impacts
The approach of combining the WaSH sector with SLGs allows us to tackle a number of varying issues that pose the greatest challenges to the poorest of the poor in West Arsi.  This transformational approach targets the following:

• Extreme Poverty Extreme poverty can imprison and paralyze people to a life of hopelessness and despair. The SLG movement restores personal dignity and creates opportunity and hopefulness out of the resource base that already exists in the community.  This is called asset-based community development. The process is to create formal small groups to envision the future together and establish responsible planning and accountability to increase income.
• Food Security It is estimated that 5.2 million people in Ethiopia are experiencing a scarcity of food and undernourishment.  West Arsi is included in this area.  SLG members will gain access to improved water sources and will be able to learn better nutrition and afford a healthier diet through alternative sources of income.
• Climate Change Adaptation  Over the past 40 years the cycles of rainfall shortage and drought in Ethiopia have worsened due to climate change.  In drought-prone areas in the southern part of Ethiopia, drought has become an annual risk.  Water shortage is a direct result of climate change.  We are helping Ethiopians to adapt to the impacts of climate change by providing alternative water sources that are sustainable during drought periods.
• Community Resilience and Disaster Response Social support is the foundation of strengthening a community’s resilience and ability to respond and adapt to disasters.  SLGs have proven to be key social structures that improve the ability of families and communities to respond to disasters in a successful way.  By strengthening and expanding our SLG programs, we promote community resilience and partner with communities for positive responses to disasters.
• Health  Waterborne disease is the number one cause of infant mortality in Ethiopia, causing an estimated 300,000 deaths per year.  The best way to decrease infant mortality and improve the health of children and families in Ethiopia is through clean and safe water.  Our wells provide clean water sources so that death won’t be caused by dirty water, and our sanitation and hygiene education programs help decrease the transmission of water-borne diseases.

UPDATE:

All of the initial well rehabs in this program have been completed.  Conclusion pages are being posted under the individual project pages for each village well. We are in the process of assessing new wells that need rehabilitation in villages nearby and farther away.  Check back soon, as the SECOND PHASE of well rehabs will be underway shortly!

WELL REHABILITATION SITE SUMMARY
Village	GPS Coordinates		Elevation (m)	Depth (m)	Static Water Level (m)	Pump Type	Well Yield (L/s)
	UTM East	UTM North
Kushe #1	475140	827438	1676	66	47	Extra Deep Hand Pump	2
Kushe #2	475851	828234	1649	69	38	Indian Mark-II	3
Gubeta Bomba	477271	830388	1618	72	18	Indian Mark-II	1
Buku Wolkite	473603	827858	1656	84	38	Indian Mark-II	2.5
Wondo Lemeche	476893	831783	1600	31	20	Afridev	1
Lalesa	470255	828879	1608	40	22	Afridev	1.5

To contribute to this ambitious program, use the PayPal button below. We welcome corporate sponsorship.

And to those who have already contributed, thank you for changing the lives of so many of the poorest of the poor in Arsi Negele, Ethiopia, and for partnering with us to promote sustainable access to clean water!

This entire program falls under our larger East Africa Water & Sanitation Program.
These projects are made possible through the partnership of Water Charity and the National Peace Corps Association.