MoWIE 6-months review meeting held

The Review meeting conducted in Dessalegn Hotel in Addis Ababa was opened by H.E. Ato Alemayehu Tegenu, the Minister. Participants were from the Ministry, Regional Water Bureaus and organizations linked to MoWIE such as Basin Authorities, EEPCO, Water Fund and Ethiopian Meteorology. About 150 participants discussed the Ministry progress, plans and challenges for 2 full days.

_{H.E. Ato Alemayehu Tegenu opening the 2 days meeting in Desalegne Hotel. Photo by Arto Suominen}

The report presented by the MoWIE compared the water supply progress from the 1991/1992 up to date. According to the report the rural water supply coverage in 1991/1992 was 15.5 %, urban water supply coverage was 59 % and the overall water supply coverage was 17 %. Today, July 2013, the water supply coverage figures are 66.5 % for rural, 81.3 for urban and 68.4 % for both.

During the first 6-months of the 2006 Ethiopian fiscal year (7/2013-6/2014) the plan was to construct 9,182 rural water supply schemes to benefit 1.55 million people. The 6-months performance was found to be only 6,041 schemes completed benefitting 1.36 million people. The report further informed that 11 urban water supply schemes have been completed in the last 6-months period benefitting 125,000 people and additional 33 urban schemes will be completed before the end of the fiscal year.

The meeting concluded that 3.5 years of the Growth and Transformation Plan period has passed and only 1.5 years is left to achieve the targets of 98 % of rural, 100 % of urban and 98.5 % of both. The following graph (source: MoWIE leaflet 2014) illustrates the water supply coverage achievement during the three first years of the GTP period. During the last two GTP years the total coverage is still to increase 30 % in order to achieve the GTP target.

 _{Source: MoWIE leaflet February 2014}