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Abstract:
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The main reasons to select the study area, North Western Region of Ethiopia, were the low water supply service level, high frequency of water related diseases and also to provide a base study for the 1st phase of Water Supply and Sanitation Programme in North Western Region of Ethiopia to be financed by the Finnish International Development Agency (FINNIDA). About 5 % of the total population of 1.6 million in the project area (80 % of the urban and 1.8 % of the rural population) has access to protected water supply sources. The rest of the population is using unprotected traditional sources. There are 35 protected water supply sources in the project area. About 60 % of the hand dug wells, 20 % of the boreholes, 90 % of the installed Consallen hand pumps and 70 % of the water committees are not functional. The Regional Office of the Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WSSA) does not have office building, store of workshop. It operates from the Bahar Dar Water Supply Services office. Shortage of skilled manpower is the other problem of the regional office. All designs and studies of rural water supplies in the region are performed by the contractor, Ethiopian Water Works Construction Authority (EWWCA). Two water supply scheme maintenance crews take care of about 140 000 km2 of North Western Region of Ethiopia. One crew is for major and the other is for minor maintenance activities. Due to shortage of finance, transportation facilities, spare parts, educational material and trained operators the community participation section of the regional office is functioning at a very limited scale. None of the water supply schemes in the region has a water tariff to cover its operation and maintenance costs. Free supply of spare parts and maintenance services to the rural water supply schemes is practised by the regional office. /Kir10 |