Interpretación desde la construcción social:

5.1 Summary of situation analysis and opportunities

At this stage, the country is apparently at a critical moment with respect to the role of Self Supply in WASH and economic development. On the one hand, there has been considerable progress in terms of policy development (notably the recognition of Self Supply in the new WASH Implementation Framework and the new Self Supply Policy Guideline), research findings are now available to help advance understanding of the performance of family wells developed and upgraded through a Self Supply approach, and some monitoring of family well use is now included in the National WASH inventory. However, the enabling environment for scaling up of the approach is yet to be developed, with significant gaps including a lack of understanding and mechanisms on the different role required by government, a weak private sector, and low demand from households that do not know what is possible or what can be done. Opportunities abound however: good linkages with efforts such as CMP scaling up in WASH, HWTS, CLTS and small-scale irrigation have the potential to help the water sector lead development of a highly effective and complementary mode of service delivery that enhances community water supply, and could provide an additional step towards universal access.

Looking forward, a key development needs to be found in the creation of appropriate incentives for Self Supply.

Where Self Supply contributes to safe access to water – requiring decisions on benchmarking safe water access using the findings in this report – should it be included in coverage calculations, facilitated by the collection of information through the national WASH inventory. This would increase the interest of regional governments and woredas on the approach, and encourage them to invest, where it is appropriate. Acceptance of an appropriate benchmark is needed and could be based upon the findings on the performance of wells with mechanical pumps, wells with rope pumps and traditional wells with varying levels of protection, as discussed in this report.

To enable the scaling up of Self Supply, the WASH sector also needs to modify its planning and financing arrangements.

On the one hand, Self Supply takes the burden of investment off the shoulders of government (and its development partners) because households pay for the wells, protection and pumps. On the other hand, the approach requires government to do different things, and in different ways. This includes creating the conditions for private sector to provide inputs and support services. Promotion, training, advisory and support, technology development, monitoring and research activities are all needed and will not come for free. A specific budget line must be established, so that regional governments and woreda offices can fund the enabling ‘software’ activities that they will need to undertake.

This is a ‘leap of faith’ for some and a challenge. All need to be convinced that overall they will receive more investment in productive infrastructure – that is used and maintained, through government spending and donor money – that creates the enabling environment rather than trying to build or fund all the water systems directly. Self Supply, and the activities required in order to go to scale will need to be shown to be cost-effective. The MoWE and water professionals at all levels also need to be convinced that Self Supply is not a threat to community water supply – but rather a complementary approach that will support their efforts – and can be delivered since it requires them to do different things that will need the development of new skills.

Attempts to scale up family wells in the past have not been entirely successful, and could not be sustained (water safety being one key issue), although huge steps in access were made in some regions such as Oromia. Showing that a Self Supply approach is possible with outcomes that are safe and complementary to community supply will require a mix of implementation at scale, monitoring, learning and adoption of approaches. Such action research should reveal the best ways to create the enabling environment, the types of partnerships needed, and how to best optimise interaction with relevant sanitation, health and agricultural initiatives to minimise additional costs for government.

A hidden resource Household-led rural water supply in Ethiopia

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5.2 Self Supply Working Group

MoWE has led the establishment of a Self Supply Working Group to spearhead efforts towards scaling up the Self Supply approach in ways that are cost effective, but also safe and sustainable. This group intends to take forward the issues raised in this report, developing a plan for required activities and leading the acquisition of resources towards its implementation. This will require an effort that engages several ministries as well as other key stakeholders at different levels from national to regional and woreda levels. It will also require the support of development partners providing resources, technical support and access to knowledge, such as through the Rural Water Supply Network and its own working group on Self Supply at international level.

5.3 Visions for Self Supply

One vision is that, by 2015, Self Supply:

• is making a widely acknowledged contribution to WASH sector coverage, with recognised wider economic benefits as an important engine for economic growth.

• is accelerated through a conscious strategy to improve WASH access for multiple uses by government at all levels, implementing appropriate catalysing and supporting activities under the new window for Self Supply projects.

• is a shining example of how households can lead their own development with the support of government and a growing private sector, and together with community level approaches to WASH.

• helps provide a robust safety net in the context of system breakdowns, climate change and periodic food insecurity.

At that time it is envisaged that:

• water quality will have been widely improved both through source and site hygiene improvements, as well as household water treatment, so that 70% of all rural drinking water contains zero faecal coliform and 95% less than 10.

• micro-finance will be readily available for those wishing to invest in water supply.

• more than 10% of rural and peri-urban coverage will be made through family investment.

• water supply-connected services will considered a healthy element of rural economy, with high quality products and well-developed skills.

• Woreda offices promote Self Supply alongside community supplies and fit necessary public investment into plans and budgets.

5.4 Next steps

The October 2011 National Workshop on Accelerating Self Supply and the Self Supply Policy Guideline have been the first of many steps needed to realise this vision. The MoWE has drafted a proposal for a Self Supply Acceleration Programme (SSAP) that further formalises the approach and defines necessary resources. The Self Supply Working Group intends to follow this up by defining more clearly what it wants to achieve, the partners and assistance needed and the steps envisaged from action research to implementation at scale. Some early steps are already being taken as part of the establishment of the SSAP. These include:

• endorsing and promoting agreed benchmarking of traditional wells;

• managing the development of technical guidelines based on benchmarking;

• engaging regions in planning for Self Supply; and

• linking various initiatives, developing household marketing approaches and promoting small scale groundwater development to build on each other’s experience and adopt similar standards of supply construction for training, advisory services and implementation.

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Developments over the past year and recent inclusion of a clear commitment to Self Supply within the commitments made during the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting (Anon., 2012), suggest that Self Supply is now being given high priority by government, and that there is real interest to realise its hidden potential.

A hidden resource Household-led rural water supply in Ethiopia

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