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Inter Aide is working in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region in Ethiopia, constructing gravity systems and establishing mechanisms to ensure that communities are able to maintain their water points.

A regulation established by the Regional Water Resource Development Bureau officializes that water points’ users have to organize themselves in association so that they can finance the maintenance of the infrastructures. These associations are oversee by Federations – cf. also the note related to Water Institutions in Ethiopia.

Inter Aide is facilitating the creation of these Federations and is reinforcing their capacities so that they become key actors able to remind and advise water points’ users for a sustainable maintenance of the water points. Their main tasks are to :

  • know the situation related to access to water in their catchment,
  • organize regular diagnosis with the associations to know the conditions of the systems (springs, water points etc.), the financial situation of the associations, advise on actions to be done by the associations to maintain these systems,
  • follow the actions taken by the associations and the results obtained in the evolution of the water points’ status
  • priortize needs for new water points and linking users and operators…
This capacity building includes providing methodologies to the Federations to organize such tasks, as well as giving them advises so that they can get a budget and have the means to ensure their missions.
 
Note written by François Bourgois, Ethiopia head of sector – March 2017