History and Recent Developments
Until 1995 the national government had been responsible for centrally planning and implementing water and sanitation projects. Under the 1995 constitution Ethiopia became a federal state, which implied the decentralization of many functions to lower levels of government. This process has now been under way for more than a decade, but decentralization has been hampered by the limited capacity of local government to carry out its new responsibilities.
Also in 1995, a Ministry of Water Resources was created, taking over many of the responsibilities of the water resources department of the former Ministry of Public Works.
In 1999 the government adopted a National Water Resources Management Policy, which was followed by the establishment of a Water Resources Development Fund (2002) and a Water Sector Development Program. The latter includes a water supply and sewerage development program (nota bene the focus on sewerage and thus the absence of on-site sanitation from the program).
The government’s Plan for Accelerated Sustained Development and to End Poverty (PADEP), covering the period 2005-2010, aimed at increasing access to an improved water source to 84% and access to improved sanitation to 80% by 2010. These ambitious targets go well beyond the water and sanitation targets of the Millennium Development Goals, which aim at halving the share of people without access by 2015. According to one set of government figures, which is used by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development for planning purposes, access to drinking water reached 68.5% in 2010. According to another set of government figures, based on national survey data and used by the WHO and UNICEF to monitor the Millennium Development Goals, in 2008 access to an improved water source was only 38% and to improved sanitation 12%.
In 2010 the government presented the equally ambitious Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) 2011-2015 that aims at increasing drinking water coverage, based on the government's definition, from 68.5% to 98.5%.
Read more about this topic: Water Supply And Sanitation In Ethiopia
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