A New Approach Is Required to End the Ethiopian Water and Sanitation Crisis by 2030

By Salfiso Kitabo

Worked for government, NGO and was a private consultant for over 25 years at various capacities. Formerly a Country Director for Water.org, and Canadian Hunger Foundation, a consultant on International Business Management and currently Innovative Finance Advisor @ WASTE Netherlands Ethiopia had a sanitation proclamation (Proclamation of King Menelik II) since 1898 Ethiopian Calendar (Please see the photo clip of the proclamation below).

The first sanitarians graduated in 1940 Ethiopian Calendar and yet, in Ethiopia, eating in open is a shame but urinating in open is NOT. One must ask, why? Why should a nation who has open defecation policy for over 117 years be in this situation. We as a nation should be ashamed and start asking ourselves and stop doing business as usual regarding Water and sanitation sector development.

According to UNICEF 2021 report (https://www.unicef.org/ethiopia/water-sanitation-and-hygienewash) Only 6.3 per cent of households in Ethiopia have access to improved sanitation. Please see the figure bellow. Ethiopia is the least leading from the bottom.

According to reports again, 70,000 children under-five years die per year due to diarrhea. This is over 190 children dying each day. Tell me what other crises, even war kills at this rate in a day. You name any other crises which could kill children at this rate. WHY? It is because we depend on charity and public funding/Government budget to solve water and sanitation problems. In Ethiopia and of course everywhere, there are more mobile phones than a toilet.

Toilets prevent the spread of disease, and provide health, privacy, and safety. Today, 1 in 4 people don’t have access to a toilet in the world. Annual expenditure to achieve SDGs (or equivalent Ethiopia standard) by 2030 is estimated at around US$3.4 billion per year (136 billion birr). Out of the total national budget of 786.6-billion-birr for 2015 EC, 14 billion Birr (0.28 billion USD) (1.7% of total budget) is allocated for implementation of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). This is $3.12 billion short of the needed funding.

One could imagine, the share to be allocated for Water and sanitation is such a small budget allocation for the 17 SDGs. The current One Wash National Plan Phase II (OWNP II) policy document has a shortage of 43% budget gap. If we see page 114 of the policy document, the gap is about US$2.89 billion. This shortage is after government allocated budget, Donors did their part and NGO contribution is considered. Who should cover this gap or what is the solution? The main solution is making the sector bankable.

Let commercial banks and Microfinance Institutions involve in this sector. Let those who are the poorest of the poor or those at the bottom of the pyramid be supported by the current modality which means the charities and the government budget but the rest who could afford to pay for the services pay. All the poor are not equally poor.

This is not a theory I am talking. It is practical and there is a living examples on the ground. One can see https://www.waste.nl/ and its program achievement https://www.finishmondial.org/ People are paying for the services. We should replicate this innovative way in Ethiopia as a national program. Public Private Partnership (PPP), Blended financing, Innovative financing for Water and sanitation modalities are the remedy.

Let the banks and MFI’s include WASH lending in to their loan portfolio. To attract foreign banks and impact investors (for availing loanable funding) to this sector the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development should make Water and sanitation a priority development agenda because lack of it is killing over 190 children each day. Doing so will attract those foreign banks and donors who are diverting their attention to other countries because of the policy in Ethiopia.

Internally prior to involving foreign banks to this, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development instruct the National Bank to review its regulations on foreign banks to include attractive package for those foreign banks who are willing to avail loanable funds for WASH sector. Doing so will help NO ONE BUT the government/Ministry of Finance and Economic development to relive itself and reallocate the limited resources it has to the poorest of the poor or areas affected by man made and natural disasters.