Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Transformation for Enhanced Resilience (WATER)
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Date of Operation: 2011 – 2013
Primary Implementing Partner: International Rescue Committee (IRC)
Other Implementing Partner: CARE Ethiopia
Regions of Operation: Afar, Oromia, and Somali
Goal:
Improved access to clean and sustainable water sources for target communities in the Somali, Afar and Oromia Regions.
Project Objectives:
- Provide 146,000 people with access to water year round.
- Improve hygiene awareness and access to sanitation among beneficiaries
- Improve pastoral rangeland land management practices
Description:
Water supply and sanitation coverage in the Somali, Oromia and Afar regions is considerably lower than the overall national coverage, with safe drinking water coverage as 38.98%, 32% and 48.57% respectively. Communities without access to safe water depend on scarce surface water sources like unprotected springs, ponds, streams and rivers, most of which are located far from households and contain severe waterborne diseases. Additionally, drought seriously impacts pastoral areas in these regions, causing traditional water sources to disappear.
Through this project, USAID works closely with regional and community governments to develop access to clean, safe and sustainable water sources. USAID has found that community contribution is a prime indicator of sustainability, so maximum use of local expertise will be incorporated into activities like well drilling and rehabilitation. In addition to creating new wells, USAID and its partners also facilitate increased knowledge and capacity of target communities on both natural resource and land use management. USAID includes conflict mitigation and do no harm approaches in all its pastoralist area work, demonstrating that project activities will not cause increased conflict and using approaches to reduce actual or potential conflicts over natural resources. Creation of a community-led project with focus on partnership with local governments will ensure smooth implementation and the creation of facilities where need is greatest.
Expected Results:
- Average water usage in target areas to increase to 15 liters per person per day
- Reach more than 75 percent of the population through targeted hygiene education resulting in a 25 percent increase in households using a hand-washing facility and a solid waste disposal system.
- Increase number of functioning water points for human and animal use
- Increase capacity of village water committees to maintain and manage water facilities
- Improve hygiene awareness and sanitation among beneficiaries through training of woreda Health Agents, Health Extension Workers and volunteer hygiene promoters
- Improve access to sanitation facilities, including construction of community and household latrines
- Improve capacity of community groups to develop and implement rangeland management plans
