First Completion Report
W2T has received our first completion report, detailing the impact our first $35,000 had on villages in Ethiopia.
Twelve hand-dugs wells are now providing clean drinkings water to communities in the central and eastern zones of the Tigray region. These wells are serving nearly 5,000 beneficiaries, forever changing their lives.
The Impact
Because of these wells, lives are changing.
- On average, 50% of women's work time has been saved that would otherwise have been used for gathering water. This has allowed women to be more involved in agriculture and household activities.
- Increasing numbers of girls enrolling in primary education.
- The average walking time required to fetch water in the surrounded areas has been substantially reduced.
- The intervention has changed behaviors and attitudes regarding personal and environmental hygiene. Some of the improvements observed include hand-washing with soap and increased latrine usage.
The Need in the Tigray Region
Tigray is one of the most food insecure regions in Ethiopia due to repeated droughts, a lack of natural resources and limited access to infrastructure. Malnutrition, ill health and asset depletion has pushed rural people further down the poverty ladder.
This ecological imbalance has led to the depletion of sources of drinking water such as streams, springs and shallow wells. Rivers run intermittently or have dried up completely. Safe and accessible water supplies have disappeared from many rural communities and almost all of the traditional sources of water are unsanitary, low yielding, seasonal and are located great distances from the villages.
According to recent data, only 41% of rural Tigray has access to clean water. The vast majority of families survive on a strict ration of less than a gallon of water per day. Limited access to water for consumption and hygiene is a major cause of ill-health and malnutrition as well as child morbidity and mortality.
More than 80% of all disease is attributed to poor access to clean potable water and sanitation. Some of the 10 top diseases surveyed in Ethiopia in 2006 were diarrhea, eye inflammations, intestinal parasites and skin infections, all of which are preventable with adequate clean water supply, sanitation and hygiene interventions.
