Tigray is one of the most drought prone regions in Ethiopia. Less than half of the people living there can access clean water.
Why we care: In Tigray, women and children often walk two or more hours each day across rugged terrain to collect water from polluted rivers for their families.
How we’re solving this: Water.org has launched a new program with a local partner, the Relief Society of Tigray (REST) to build community wells in the area.
Water.org began working in Ethiopia in 2004. Since then, it has worked successfully with local communities, reaching more than 100,000 people with access to safe water, health and hygiene education, and sanitary toilets.
Your support for this project will go toward building and maintaining one community well in the community of Awlie. Currently, women and children are walking two hours round-trip to collect unsafe water from a river. This project will:
- Serve approximately 300 people, giving them reliable access to safe water
- Establish and train a six-person committee to serve as the primary managers and promote health and sanitation education
- Provide hygiene and sanitation education to two health extension workers.
- Conduct surveys and focus groups pre- and post- program intervention stages to measure program impacts
The community will contribute to the program through the provision of labor, construction materials, well user fees, and management of the completed water points. Water.org will work with local water and health government offices to support the communities once the project ends and to monitor village health. Water-quality tests will also be completed at the site.
Program activities include construction of water systems, community mobilization, training, and hygiene education.