Ethiopia 2015: Diary #1 from Yorkshire Water's volunteers

We are here on our second day and starting to get stuck in and have more of an understanding of the challenges facing Bishoftu Water Utilities.

We attended a meeting with Bishoftu Water utilities to discuss issues which they currently face and the plan for the rest of 2015. We then visited a number of sites to get an increased idea of the issues on individual sites.
 
Nigel, a leakage technician, has seen that leakage is an issue with 40% of water produced lost through various ways, but mainly leaking from mains. Leaks are unable to be detected until water shows through the ground which could take weeks or months.
 
Joel, a Field Technician, is going to be working alongside Bishoftu Utilities on how to manage the network in a more efficient way and suggest improvements in network management which will benefit the company.
 
Anna, a Water Quality Scientist, will be making suggestions on how to improve water quality in a variety of ways. She has seen that there are a number of small changes which can make a huge difference in the future.
 
In Bishoftu the production capacity is 12,000 m3/d with an ever increasing population. This is also based on an assumption of 40 litres per person per day but recent evaluation has suggested this is nearer 80 litres!
 
Ethiopia has increased its water supply coverage from 19% to 52% and although sanitation has improved by 24% the coverage is significantly less than that of the clean water network. After meeting many Ethiopians and being treat like royalty over the last few days it seems such a shame that so many of these people are suffering in ways we could only imagine from Yorkshire.

We have seen that Bishoftu have got big plans for the near future and we cant wait to help support them where we can.





The Yorkshire Water staff out in Ethiopia. (From left to right): Joel Tidswell, Field Technician; Anna Warrington, Water Quality Scientist; Nigel Riley, Leakage Inspector