UK to provide over 1.4 bln birr

Muluken Yewondwossen
The Capital
26 November 2007



Shriti Vadera, Minister for International Development (DFID), has announced a five year, 75 million pound (1.42 bln ETB) water, sanitation and hygiene project in Ethiopia, on Thursday, November 22, 2007.
Shriti is on a four day visit to Ethiopia and has met Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, other government ministers, Professor Alpha Oumar Konare, AU commissioner and civil society organizations based in Addis Ababa. She also visited the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region (SNNPR) and met the regional president, Ato Sheferaw Shigute.
“I am very pleased to have been able to visit Ethiopia and I congratulate Ethiopia on the progress made towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Ethiopia remains a very important country for DFID. I am impressed with the recent growth record and efforts to reduce poverty,” Shriti Vadera said in her speech.
“Over 38 million Ethiopians lack access to a safe and reliable water supply. Lack of clean water leads to disease and places a heavy burden on poor people, especially women and girls, who are expected to fetch and carry water. By making clean, safe water available, through the provision of cheap technologies and educating people about basic sanitation, thousands of lives will be saved. More girls will be able to go to school, as they will no longer be needed to spend hours fetching water, and fewer people will be made ill by the water they drink,” she added.
Shriti Vadera also stated that this commitment will help support the Ethiopian government’s national Water Supply and Hygiene programme and will pay for 7,000 water points, as well as protecting springs, boreholes and water pipes in 300 districts and 37 towns. It will also pay for skills development to improve the way water services are run and provide training for health extension workers and engineers.
Ethiopia’s sanitation coverage and water consumption rates are among the lowest in the world, with almost half of the rural population having to travel 1-4 kilometers to their nearest water source. The Ethiopian government has placed water and sanitation at the top of its poverty reduction priorities, but Ethiopia is still off track for reaching the Millennium Development Goal target to halve the proportion of people currently without access to water and sanitation.
Asfaw Dingamo, Minister for Water Resources, said, “The right to potable water is a right of all Ethiopian people. To this end, Ethiopia very much welcomes DFID’s financial support to our Water, Sanitation and Hygiene program.”
With over 75 million people, Ethiopia has the second highest population in Africa. Reducing poverty has a direct bearing on achieving all the global millennium development goals (MDG).The MDG targets for water and sanitation are to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.
Ethiopia’s water and sanitation consumption rates are among the lowest in the world. In 2007, almost half of Ethiopia’s people lack an adequate and reliable supply of water and only a third has access to even basic sanitation.
Ethiopia is unlikely to meet the MDG target without increasing its investment in fighting poverty. The Ethiopian government’s national water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) program is supported by external donors including the World Bank, African Development Bank, UNICEF and NGOs.