Sustainable Rural Water, Sanitation and

Hygiene Project for Sidama Region,

Ethiopia
 PROJECT SUMMARY:

One third of the world’s population, which is approximately 2.5 billion men, women and children

do not have access to safe water and sanitation facilities. It is evident from various research

studies that there is a direct relation between Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and

health of an individual. UNICEF reports that over 60 to 80 percent of communicable diseases

are attributed to limited access to safe water and inadequate sanitation and hygiene services

in Ethiopia.

The overall objective of the project is to successfully establish and demonstrate a

sustainable model for improving Water Supply, Hygiene and Sanitation in rural areas and

in primary schools in Sidama Region.

What is the rationale for the project? [Kindly establish the need for the project, your rationale

for selecting the project location etc.]

According to reports of the WHO and UNICEF, one third of the world’s population, which is

approximately 2.5 billion men, women and children do not have access to safe water and

sanitation facilities. Furthermore, it is estimated that over 673 million people still practice open

defecation in fields, forests, bushes, plastic bags, rivers and lakes (WHO/UNICEF, 2019). It is

also estimated that almost 3 billion people do not have access to hand washing facilities with soap.

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It is evident from various research studies that there is a direct relation between WASH and health

of a community and individual. Unsafe water and inadequate sanitation and hygiene practices can

have dire consequences on the health of people, especially the children under the age of 5 years.

Over 700 children under age 5 die every day of diarrhoeal diseases due to lack of appropriate

WASH services. Along with Diarrhea, inadequate sanitation and hygiene also causes diseases

like cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and hepatitis.

UNICEF reports that over 60 to 80 percent of communicable diseases are attributed to limited

access to safe water and inadequate sanitation and hygiene services in Ethiopia.

Undernourishment is a serious issue in Ethiopia, and 50 percent of the reported cases are a result

of poor hygiene and lack of access to water supply and sanitation. There are strong links between

sanitation and undernourishment (stunting) as open defecation leads to fecal-oral diseases such

as diarrhea, which worsens malnutrition (UNICEF). Let us look at the Water and Sanitation in

numbers in Ethiopia:

● 65 percent of households have access to improved water sources

● Only 6.3 percent of households have access to improved sanitation

● 60 - 80 percent of communicable diseases are attributed to limited access to safe water

and inadequate sanitation and hygiene services

● 70,000 under-five deaths per year due to diarrhoea

● 17 percent of people practice improved hygiene behaviours and live in healthy

environments. (UNICEF, available at: https://www.unicef.org/ethiopia/water-sanitation-

and-hygiene-wash)

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The data above clearly shows the need to establish a sustainable model for WASH to improve the

existing situation. The overall objective of the project is to successfully establish and demonstrate

a sustainable model for improving Water Supply, Hygiene and Sanitation in rural areas and in

primary schools in Sidama Region.

The project will be launched in coordination with the local communities and the local authorities.

By adopting a participatory and integrated approach the project will help the communities in

adopting safe drinking water practices, sanitation, seepage management and hygiene. The

project will be implemented over a period of 3 years.

What is the project aim and objectives? [What is the purpose of the project? What are the key

objectives? Please make sure the objectives are Specific, Measurable, Realistic and Time bound]

The overall objective of the project is to successfully establish and demonstrate a sustainable

model for improving Water Supply, Hygiene and Sanitation in rural areas and in primary schools

in Sidama Region.

Specific objectives are:

1. To bring about a behavioral change in the communities with respect to WASH by promoting

low cost WASH facilities and creating awareness on the linkages between proper

hygiene/sanitation and both individual and community health.

2. To develop child friendly WASH facilities in Kindergartens and primary schools in the region

to improve hygiene practices in school children.

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● Who will benefit from the project?

The project will be implemented in the Sidama region, which is one of the regional states of

Ethiopia. The project will directly benefit a total of 5, 92, 539 households in Sidama Region. The

total population of 2,954,136, of whom 1,491,248 are men and 1,462,888 women. The project will

also improve the WASH facilities in the 75 kindergartens, 633 primary schools in the region.

● How do you plan to implement the project? [Explain in detail how you intend to achieve

the objectives of the project. What are the key activities? ]

The project will be implemented through a participatory and collaborative approach. The local

communities and the local government authorities will be involved throughout the project

implementation phase. The project will have two sets of activities, one set of activities will be

towards community awareness on WASH and the other set of activities will be towards improving

the WASH infrastructure in the primary schools in the identified project villages. The following

activities will be undertaken to make the project effective and successful.

ACTIVITY: COMMUNITY AWARENESS AND MOBILIZATION

1. Situation analysis: To get an understanding of the existing hygiene practices, water

supply, and sanitary conditions our team will undertake a detailed situation analysis. A

standardized questionnaire will be used to collect data on knowledge, attitude, and practice

on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and a site visit will be conducted to get

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 information on the status of (WASH) related infrastructure in the villages. The aim of the

study will be to:

a. Assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of rural residents on water, sanitation,

and hygiene in the identified project site

b. Existing infrastructure for water supply, status of toilets, wash basins, availability of

soaps etc.

2. Creating Awareness: The first and foremost step is to create awareness amongst the

communities on issues related to WASH. Only when communities understand the

importance of safe water, hygienic practices and sanitation, will they adopt better practices.

For making the awareness drive a success, the following tasks will be undertaken:

a. Development of a plan for awareness generation: Our project team will work with

an external consultant to develop a plan for carrying out the awareness drive. The

awareness plan will cover the following:

i. Identifying key stakeholders to be covered (Schools, parents, health officials,

local community etc.)

ii. Communication material for Awareness Drive (tools that will be most effective

in carrying out the message).

iii. Key messages to be used during the awareness session

iv. Key activities to be conducted for sensitizing the community to have

maximum impact.

b. Design of IEC material: Our design team shall prepare IEC material to be used for

the awareness drives. Important key messages related to WASH will be printed on

leaflets, posters, banners, hoardings and booklets. All the material will be in

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 vernacular and will have simple graphics and data to show the importance of good

WASH practices.

c. Awareness Drives: Once the necessary material for awareness is ready, we will

initiate the awareness drive in the project villages. We shall be distributing the IEC

material in the villages and will keep some material even at the primary health care

centers.

3. Community Mobilization: The primary purpose of the mobilization is to engage with the

community members to address the issues related to WASH in their respective villages.

Considering the proposed project will yield the desired outcome only when implemented in

a participatory approach, it will be important to mobilise the communities right from the early

stage so as to get their feedback for improving the existing WASH condition in the villages.

Following are some of the activities that we will be undertaking as part of community

mobilization:

a. Community meetings with community leaders, religious and political leaders to

discuss the WASH issues

b. Public Debates

c. Puppet shows

d. Village literacy fairs to share WASH information

e. Listening groups to listen to and discuss local telecasts on radio

f. Storytelling in which the narrator recounts a story to highlight key messages related

to WASH.

g. Door to Door sessions to discuss the importance of WASH and practices to be used

to ensure proper hygiene.

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 4. Formation of volunteer WASH coalition: Volunteers from the community are vital to

achieve the mission to improve WASH indicators in the village. Individuals who are active

and have a good rapport in the village will be brought together to form a Village WASH

coalition. This group of volunteers will be trained by us to carry out the extension related

activities in their respective villages.

5. Training on WASH: The volunteer WASH coalition will be trained on various aspects

required for improving WASH practices at household level. This will include:

a. Correct way of Hand washing

b. Drinking and Storing Safe Water

c. Use of Drying Rack for drying washed utensils

d. Building and using a simple toilet

e. Maintaining a Clean Compound

ACTIVITY: SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

1. Identification of schools: The first task towards the infrastructure development of schools

will be to identify the primary schools in the project villages. Schools which cater to a larger

population of children in the age group of 3 to 15 years will be selected for development of

infrastructure.

2. Feasibility Assessment: Our teams will conduct a feasibility assessment of all the

identified schools to understand the infrastructural requirement for each school. This will

need the team to understand the

a. availability of water

b. nearest water sources

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 c. space for construction of toilets

d. quality of available water

e. treatment of water to make it safe for consumption

f. drainage of grey water

g. space hand washing facility

3. Development of child-friendly hygiene and sanitation facilities: Basis the feasibility

report we shall develop child friendly hygiene and sanitation facilities. This will include the

following facilities in all the identified schools:

a. Safe drinking water

b. Separate toilets for girls and boys

c. Hand washing facility

d. Proper drainage and treatment of grey water

e. Soap dispensers

The school will be responsible for the maintenance and cleaning up of the facilities and to ensure

that students use the toilets, we will also be conducting an education campaign in the project

schools.

4. Education on WASH in schools: Developing the facilities in the schools will be of help,

only when the students and teachers use the facilities and change their attitude towards

WASH. To ensure that the facilities are used properly and children understand the

importance of safe water, hygiene and sanitation, we will be organizing a comprehensive

WASH education series in the project schools. The education campaign will include:

a. Regular classes on maintaining hygiene in school

b. Child friendly audio-visual tools to enhance the awareness

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 c. Celebration of water day, hand hygiene day, menstruation day, toilet day

d. Poster competitions on WASH

e. Awareness on personal hygiene

f. Awareness sessions on menstruation amongst adolescent girls

g. Importance of hand washing

h. Preventing contamination of water

5. Formation of WASH clubs: Each school will also have a WASH club of students. The

primary purpose of these WASH clubs will be to ensure that all students in the school are

using the facility properly and are following basic WASH practices.

6. Training of teachers: Teachers from the school will also be trained on various aspects of

WASH and also on the maintenance and operation of the facility.

● Sustainability of the project

The success of any WASH project happens only when the communities adopt safe water, hygiene

and sanitation practices. This would mean to bring about a change in the behaviour and practices

that are being currently used by the communities. To make the project sustainable we will be

creating WASH volunteer groups in all the project villages. These volunteer groups will be

responsible for carrying out the extension activities of the project. Considering these volunteer

groups will be individuals from the same village, the community members will listen to them and

will bring about the change in their habits.

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Also, having implemented such projects in the past, we understand that changing old habits takes

time and therefore to ensure long term involvement with the project villages we shall initiate health

extension programs at the primary health care. We will be collaborating with the primary health

care centers to conduct hygiene and sanitation awareness campaigns even after the project ends,

so as to ensure that people do not go back to the old habits.

The school WASH program will also help in ensuring sustainability of the project. As students in

the schools will be learning about the importance of WASH, they will be carrying the message to

their homes as well. This continuous flow of information between the parents and their children

will ensure that people do not go back to the old practices. Also, as the children will have access

to WASH facilities in their school premises, they will reinforce suitable WASH practices in their

homes as well and will motivate their parents to develop WASH facilities within their houses as

well.

● Give Details of your organization:

XXXXX is based in Rural Ethiopia and works on issues related to safe water, hygiene and

sanitation in rural areas. We have an experience of over 10 years in implementing WASH projects

in different areas in Ethiopia. For our continued efforts towards improving WASH parameters, we

have also been awarded by the local government for the last 3 years.

Contact Details: XXXXXXX

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Detailed Budget

Categories Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

Personnel Salaries XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXX

● Project Director

● Project Officers (4)

● Mobilisers (8)

● Communication consultant (1)

Activities: Community Awareness and Mobilization

Situation Analysis XXXXXX

Awareness Generation activities XXXXXX

Community Mobilization XXXXXX XXXXXX

Formation of WASH coalition XXXXXX

Training XXXXXX

Activities: School Infrastructure Development

Identification of Schools XXXXXX

Feasibility of Schools XXXXXX

Development of child friendly WASH XXXXXX XXXXXX

facilities

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WASH education XXXXXX XXXXXX

Formation of WASH Clubs XXXXXX

Teachers Training XXXXXX

Other Associated Cost XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX

Total XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX

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October 13, 2021

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