National
Drinking Water Clearinghouse
West Virginia University
P.O. Box 6064
Morgantown, WV
26506-6064
An
American Operator Explores the Horn of Africa
Story
and Photos by Larry Rader
NDWC Environmental Consultant
Editor’s note:
Currently, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Water Resources
uses World Health Organisation drinking water standards for design and monitoring
purposes. However, the ministry recently conducted a water-standard study
and plans to adopt a new water-quality standard for the country. The standard
was not complete at the time this article was written.
How
did a water guy from West Virginia end up in Ethiopia? Well, being in the
right place at the right time certainly helped. It also did not hurt that
the little hair I have went gray from almost 30 years of working with and
worrying about the rural water systems in West Virginia. Whatever the reason,
Robert Roche, Ph.D., lead sanitary engineer for the World Bank, invited me
to make the two-week trip. He didn’t need to ask twice.
I would spend the first week attending the “International Conference
on Water and Sanitation Services in Small Towns and Multi-Village Schemes”
held in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. The second week would be spent visiting
rural drinking water systems throughout the country. Also making the trip
to attend the conference was Sanjay Saxena, director of the National Drinking
Water Clearinghouse (NDWC).
The Adventure Begins
My month-long series of vaccinations was over, the visa arrived from the Ethiopian
Embassy in Washington D.C., and I had packed enough stuff to allow me to survive
anywhere in the world for several years. My banjo was going along at the request
of Bob Roche, and I purchased two cartons of stick candy knowing there would
be children. In other words, I was ready for anything.
On June 9, 2002, Sanjay and I took off, and after 23- and a-half hours, we
arrived at Addis Ababa tired, excited, and wishing it were daylight. In spite
of the long trip, I was up early and ready to check out my new surroundings.
The first thing I discovered in Ethiopia was the coffee.
Coffee was first found in Ethiopia. The Kefa region is named for it, and their
coffee, served hot, strong, black, and sweet, has evolved into absolutely
the finest drink anywhere. Not wanting to insult the culture, I enjoyed five
cups (the cups are small) of this delicious brew.
Photo
Caption-Fetching water for the family is usually a job for young.
The International Conference on Water and Sanitation Services in Small Towns
and Multi-Village Schemes was held June 11–15 at the United Nations Conference
Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was hosted by the Ethiopian government
through the Ministry of Water Resources and sponsored by the World Bank, the
Water and Sanitation Program, and the World Bank Institute, as well as the
United Kingdom Government and the Bank-Netherlands-Water-Partnership. The
conference drew more than 200 practitioners from all continents. About 70
percent of them were from Africa, and the majority had more than 15 years
of experience in water and sanitation.
In some ways, the conference reminded me of the meetings and conferences that
took place after the rest of the U.S. discovered Appalachia’s problems
in the 1960s and ‘70s. Occasionally, words like innovative technology,
privatization, and “the people are just not capable,” caused the
hair on the back of my neck to rise. As you might expect, a few people
seemed to feel the answer to any problem was only an academic exercise away.
These small personal issues aside, the formal part of the conference was informative
and extremely well presented, particularly the case studies. At the end of
five days, I had a much better understanding of the problems facing developing
countries, although I was still somewhat confused about the solutions.
The informal part of the conference was a more useful learning experience
for me. By informal, I mean sitting and talking over coffee. We discussed
a number of matters in detail, such as government interference, the extremely
high cost for most operation and maintenance items, potential customers who
did not always agree with change, and the ever-popular “expert with a
theory.”
The greatest thing about these discussions was, believe it or not, most of
the complaints were already familiar to me from back home. Some of the most
eye-opening discussions occurred while listening to the views Africans have
of the U.S. The fact that the U.S. has large rural areas and that many of
those rural areas have drinking water and wastewater problems was inconceivable
to most of the people I talked to.
First, you need to realize that their impressions of the U.S. come almost
entirely from movies and TV. The prevailing view seems to have New York City
extending west until it meets the suburbs of Hollywood-Los Angeles. We are
all thought to be rich, living in large homes, and driving big expensive cars.
Telling people that I lived in a poorer, more rural part of the U.S., had
grown up drinking water fetched from our well, and using an outhouse to answer
the call of nature caused looks of complete disbelief.
During the second week of my trip, which was spent visiting rural communities,
the people traveling with me would sometimes use these little-known facts
from my past as part of my introduction. Who would have thought the time I
spent sitting in that darned outhouse dodging wasps would 50 years later cause
me to appear a little less foreign to people half way ‘round the world?
First Stop: Adigrat
Once the conference ended, my week of visiting rural water systems began.
Our group assembled at the Bole airport to make the 7:30 a.m. flight from
Addis Ababa north to Mekele. Adigrat is in the northern region of Tigray and
just south of the border with Eritrea.The
project in Adigrat is representative of other water projects
in larger communities.
The cast of characters for this trip would stay the same for the remainder
of the week: Bob Roche, lead sanitary engineer, and Catherine Revels, senior
financial specialist both from the Washington, D.C. office of the World Bank;
Yitbarek Tessema, water and urban operations officer; and Tesfaye Bekalu,
Water and Sanitation Programme/Africa (WSP/AF) program assistant, guide, teacher,
and soon to be good friend. Yitbarek had the unenviable task of coordinating
the entire week, and Tesfaye had the equally difficult task of keeping me
out of trouble. Both work out of the World Bank Country Office in Addis Ababa.
A little over an hour after taking off from Addis Ababa, we were on the ground
in Mekele where two SUVs were waiting. One would take Bob, Catherine, and
Yitbarek to meet officials from the regional water bureau and local politicians.
The other would take Tesfaye and me 125 kilometers (km), which is approximately
78 miles, further north to the town of Adigrat where a water system upgrade
was under construction.
We stopped at the Tigray Bureau of Water long enough to pick up Zrae Ali,
a chemist and water quality expert, then continued north and arrived at Adigrat
in late morning and went directly to the plant site.
The tanks and buildings of the facility were constructed of concrete or concrete
blocks. The site included a building for the gas chlorinator, a building for
the emergency generator, and a third for other supplies. Two new concrete
storage tanks were also built, one 200 cubic meters (52,840 gallons) and one
100 cubic meters (26,420 gallons) to supplement the existing 300-cubic-meter
storage capacity, giving Adigrat a total of 600 cubic meters (158,520 gallons)
of water in storage. Six wells drilled to depths of 120 meters to 150 meters
(394 feet to 492 feet) supply the water that requires only disinfection.
The plant site is enclosed within a barbed wire fence for security. A barbed
wire fence also surrounds a new building that is centrally located in the
well field, housing electrical controls. The upgrade included 10 kilometers
(km) (32,810 feet) of new pipe, giving the system a total of 21 km (68,901
feet) of distribution lines. In addition, workers are building pit latrines
and community showers as a part of the upgrade.
When the new system is completed this year, it is projected to serve a population
of approximately 60,000 people. By 2015, the population is expected to increase
to 100,000, which will be largely due to the water system upgrade.
Although Adigrat is certainly an urban community, we would consider the process
of getting water to the customers a bit unusual. Consider this: of the 60,000
present customers, only about 6,000 homes will choose a household connection.
However, only 200 homes or less will actually have water plumbed into the
house. The remaining household connections will serve a faucet just outside
the home.
The flat rate for a household connection is 1.5 Ethiopian birr, or around
17 cents in U.S. dollars, for one cubic meter (264.2 gallons) of water. However,
even when new systems are built and water is made available, most people will
continue to carry it home in containers as they have for centuries.
As a part of the upgrade, Adigrat will construct 30 locations where people
can purchase water by the bucket. They may be called water points, fountains,
standpipes, or locally “bono” and are spread evenly throughout the
community. Employees of the water system operate and maintain these water
points.
Forty liters (10.5 gallons), or the equivalent of two buckets of water, is
sold for approximately 5 cents Ethiopian or slightly less than one-half cent
U.S. currency. The cost comes out to around 50 cents per 1,000 gallons. So
the next time your customers complain about water rates, you might consider
building a few water points and handing out buckets.
Ethiopian households average five people, and design standards for communities
like Adigrat use 30 liters (8 gallons) per person per day. This means that
someone, usually young girls, must carry 40 gallons of water home each and
every day.
With any luck, as Ethiopia continues to decentralize many governmental functions,
the decision-making process that Adigrat uses will become more common. The
community is divided into four sections or kebeles, and the people living
in each kebele elect a representative to serve on the water and sanitation
committee (WATSAN). These representatives serve for a set amount of time,
usually between three to five years, and in most cases are unpaid.
The WATSAN is responsible for the day-to-day activities of the water system
and answers directly to the town council. The new water system plans to employ
approximately 50 people, including water sellers. And, it is important to
note, the community has insisted that women hold important positions. Adigrat
should do well.
The only problem they encountered was a difficulty in obtaining pipefittings
and some electrical controls, which brought construction to a halt. Unlike
the U.S. where you call a supplier and a truck shows up the next day, Ethiopia
does not have companies who stock municipal supplies. Items not produced there
are imported, apparently as needed, which really slows things down.
Photo
Caption-This hand pump supplies water for approximately 500 people in
the small village of Zenzelema,located just outside the city of Bahir.
The Adventure Continues
Following
the trip to Adigrat, we were up again before dawn for the drive to Awassa
located in the southern region of Sidamo. The road from Addis Ababa to Awassa
is paved and very well maintained, so we decided to drive. The drivers for
the World Bank, the best I have ever ridden with, consider any speed less
than 120 km per hour (approximately 74.6 miles per hour) a complete waste
of time. So off we went, one foot on the gas and one hand on the horn.
About an hour out of Addis—after passing every donkey cart on the road—the
radiator on the Toyota SUV cracked. As we formed a group at the front of the
vehicle to offer opinions, all of those donkey carts had the chance to pass
us with driver, passenger, and donkey, all smiling. Just at that moment, a
local bus stopped, and Yitbarek, now acting tour director, arranged for us
to continue the trip to Awassa in a more leisurely fashion.
Photo
Caption-Electricity is not available in many areas.The town of Ambesame
uses this diesal generator to supply.
Bob, Catherine, Yitbarek, and Tesfaye went to the Southern District Water
Bureau to discuss upcoming projects. I headed for the Awassa Town Water Supply
office. As it turned out, the system’s supervisor, Letta Yetamo, didn’t
know I was coming. It was obvious that Letta was in the middle of a very busy
day; however, with the courtesy that is so typical there, his face only fell
slightly when I asked to see his treatment plant at the end of a dirt road
located several kilometers from town.
What a plant site! Built at the base of a mountain where a small, fast, running
stream provides raw water, it is the most beautiful location for a water plant,
or anything else for that matter, that I have ever seen. And because of the
remoteness, the community built a house nearby for the chief operator. The
treatment process is conventional coagulation, flocculation, and sedimentation,
using lime and alum. Gas chlorine provides disinfection, and the lab is equipped
with HACH company products.
With the exception of the lush, tropical trees and flowers of the landscape,
I could have been anywhere in the U.S. Built in 1982 and designed for a population
of 60,000, the plant now supplies water to 150,000 people and is long overdue
for an upgrade. Obviously well operated and maintained, it would be a credit
to any community anywhere. The Awassa system provides water to several water
points as well as to private household connections. I almost applied for a
job.
On to Bahir Dar
Located in the Amhara Region in the northwest part of Ethiopia, Bahir Dar
is situated on Lake Tana, birthplace of the Blue Nile River.
Once again, I was up before dawn to catch the early flight. The rest of the
group called on the local water bureau while I visited some small water points
and one community with a five-year-old pipe water system. Pipe systems are
just that, systems that distribute water through pipes to locations other
than the well site.
Photo Caption-These treatment basins are in the
Town of Awassa.
However, the most common installation for smaller communities consists of
a well and a heavy-duty hand pump. I saw several of these throughout the countryside,
usually serving populations up to 500 people. A few kilometers outside Bahir
Dar, the small community of Zenzelema built one such installation next to
a health clinic.
Although walking half a mile to get water from a hand pump may seem very inconvenient
to us, people in these communities have carried water from wherever they could
find it, generation after generation.
Not only could the distances be great, the water was most often of questionable
quality, causing many deaths from waterborne diseases. Bringing safe water
to small communities also provides more than health benefits. Drilling a well
close to a community may actually allow some children to attend school.
Carrying water is a job usually for female children. If the distance is far,
it can easily turn into a full-time effort, allowing little time for school.
Something as simple as a well with a hand pump can have a dramatic effect
on many lives in many ways.
The last community I visited was Ambasame Town, located several kilometers
outside Bahir Dar. Again, a long ride over a dusty road brought us to an isolated
community with a population of around 6,000. A metered well drilled to 60
meters and a generator-powered pump supply the water.
The generator looked so good I thought it was new. As it turned out, the generator
came with the system five years earlier. The pride these people have in their
water systems shows in everything they do. Out of the population of 6,000,
only five homes have private household connections and the rest purchase their
water from six public fountains. The average use is approximately 30,000 liters
(7,926 gallons) per day or 1.3 gallons per day (gpd) per person. In the U.S.,
the average use is 150 gpd per person. The water requires no treatment.
My last day of visiting rural water systems was over, and I checked into the
Papyrus Motel in Bahi Dar. While in Bahir Dar, I attended a meeting between
representatives of the World Bank and Ato Yospeh Reta, the president of Amhara
National Region State. President Yospeh expressed the opinion that I had heard
many times during my trip: Knowledge must accompany the money or it will do
little good, long term.
The next morning Tesfaye and I flew back to Addis Ababa where I spent the
remainder of the day packing for my trip home. Then, almost before it began,
my two-week adventure was over, all of the candy was gone, and I boarded a
plane for the 23- and a-half-hour flight home.
Professional Observations and Conclusions
One
of the reasons the situation in Ethiopia was familiar to me is the manner
in which well-meaning people rush to do something, anything, in an attempt
to sooth their guilt at allowing these conditions to exist. When the U.S.
government discovered the water problems in Appalachia and other rural areas
of the country, the first impulse was to throw large amounts of money at the
problems. However, training and technical assistance must be an integral part
of funding.
Photo
Caption-A water point or bono is a common gathering place for children.
The initial funding is an essential part of the process. But, without providing
the community with proper training and technical support, that new system
can become more of a burden than a blessing. Building a new system for any
rural community is the easy part. The difficulties occur over the next 25
years.
In the U.S., the Rural Development Administration (RDA) provides a major portion
of funding for rural systems. RDA, being a quick study, realized rural systems
need support not only before, but also after systems are built. Technical
support helps protect the initial investment and gives communities the necessary
tools to maintain viability.
People in rural communities are every bit as intelligent as their urban counterparts.
However, anybody new to the job must learn the skills necessary to operate,
maintain, and manage a water system. Once RDA reached this point, it began
to fund groups, such as the National Rural Water Association and the NDWC,
to provide much-needed support. Groups such as these offer quick access to
information and help that otherwise would be either too costly or too far
away for most communities.
If you think about it and use just a little common sense, the best way to
help rural communities operate and maintain their new water systems is to
make someone available to them who looks and talks like them and has the skills
necessary to provide onsite training and technical assistance.
This approach also answers the worn-out argument used against all rural utilities,
“they cannot afford to hire enough qualified people.” The argument
is no doubt true, but darn it, they can afford to hire local people both willing
and capable of being trained. That is what a community water system is all
about. To believe otherwise, in my opinion, is elitist.
What would I do if I had the opportunity and resources to benefit the water
and sanitation systems in Ethiopia? I can only speak from my experiences in
West Virginia, but I do know what works here. I would hire one or two highly
motivated people from each region, preferably with work experience. These
people would receive further training in system operation, maintenance, and
management.
Although it would be foolish to expect anyone to become an expert in all areas,
the people doing these jobs must be trained well enough to recognize a problem
and knowledgeable enough to know where the solution can be found. Problem
solving, at least in rural utilities, cannot be taught. A majority of the
education comes through experience gained on the job. In other words, if you
hire the right people, they will literally train themselves along with the
people they are helping.
The next step is gaining the trust, confidence, and, I hope, friendship of
the communities you intend to help. If this step is not taken, all of the
knowledge and information in the world won’t matter.
The people in these jobs also must take on the responsibility to research,
develop, and circulate written information for training purposes. Training
can be as simple as teaching an operator how to troubleshoot electrical problems
or as formal as meeting with decision makers from several communities to discuss
the importance of long-range planning. Although travel can be a problem in
rural areas, bringing representatives from several communities together in
the same location allows for interaction among the different groups.
Many years ago, when I took the job as circuit rider, I received a road map
and the following instructions: “Help all of the small water systems
in West Virginia.” I took those words very seriously, and I know there
are many people in Ethiopia who will do the same.
|
Ethiopia is Both Breathtaking and Extraordinary When I
first arrived in Ethiopia, I didn’t know what to expect. Torn by
bloody coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought, and massive refugee problems,
Ethiopia is a country in desperate need.
|
My Personal Observations and Conclusions
Ethiopia is the oldest country in Africa, possibly the world. These are proud
people who are not the least interested in becoming welfare clients of the
rest of the world. They are only interested in providing their families with
the basics of life and their children with an education—just like the
rest of us. Ethiopia and Africa in general deserve our help and our knowledge
because, after all, it does look a little too familiar there to those of us
living in rural America.
A few years ago, I read that a visit to Africa will change you forever, and
I am proud to say that it has changed me. If you consider the people to be
the wealth of a country, then Ethiopia is indeed one of the richest countries
in the world.
About
the Author
Larry
Rader lives and works in his hometown of Beverly,West Virginia.