Access
According to data from the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation of WHO and UNICEF, which are in turn based on data from various national surveys including the 2005 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), access to an improved water source and improved sanitation was estimated as follows in 2008:
- 38% for improved water supply (98% for urban areas and 26% for rural areas)
- 12% for improved sanitation (29% in urban areas, 8% in rural areas)
According to figures used by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development for planning purposes, however, access was much higher. In 2010, access to drinking water was estimated at 68.5%: 91.5% in urban areas (within 0.5 km) and 65.8% in rural areas (within 1.5 km). The higher figure for rural areas may be because the distance to an improved water source used in this definition is higher than the distance used by the Demographic and Health Survey.
In 1990 access to improved water supply had been estimated at only 17%, and access to improved sanitation had been estimated at only 4%. There thus has been a significant increase in access for water supply and sanitation, which spans both urban and rural areas. More than 138,000 improved community water points were constructed and rehabilitated from 2008 to 2010.
In communities that lack access to an improved water source, women bear the brunt of the burden of collecting water. For example, according to an article by Tina Rosenberg for National Geographic, in the mountain-top village Foro in the Konso special woreda of southwestern Ethiopia women make three to five round trips per day to fetch dirty water from the Koiro river. Each roundtrip lasts two to three hours and water is carried in "50-pound jerrycans".
Read more about this topic: Water Supply And Sanitation In Ethiopia
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—Jean François Lyotard (b. 1924)