Maomo Yalew Amhara Scheme Management Director Regiol Water and Energy Bureau
Scheme Management Director, Amhara Regional Water Bureau, Ethiopia
Published on: 25/11/2024
Water scheme construction is the responsibility of government in Ethiopia. Non-governmental organisations are playing a key role in supporting the professionalisation of water supply. Mamo Yalew shares the progress made on data management and establishing legal entities to provide maintenance service.
‘I am Mamo Yalew, Scheme Management Director, from the Amhara Region Water and Energy Bureau.
Amhara Region has over 85,000 water schemes. Constructing a new water scheme requires significant capital investment. Managing an existing scheme is primarily about providing training and building community ownership. This requires relatively little investment, and when the community owns the scheme, the service is more likely to be sustainable. Yet managing constructed water schemes is a challenge. To address this, the region has developed guidelines on water scheme management, as well as a water management proclamation for both rural and urban areas.
In our effort of maintaining existing schemes the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is providing us a support through the Millennium Water Alliance Ethiopia under the Safe Water Initiative. Through this initiative we receive support from IRC, CARE, and other Millennium Water Alliance members to our activities in the districts of Farta, Dera, and North Mecha.
To manage rural water schemes, and as part of the initiative, the Amhara Regional Bureau has developed three guidelines:
The guideline development was supported by training provided by CARE on the legalisation of WASH committees and establishment of Rural Water User Associations.
One other area of support has been data management. The alliance has provided us with vital training on data collection, updating, and analysis. They also provided us with tablets and computers.
A data management system is essential for identifying non-functional water schemes. When a water scheme stops functioning, a WASH committee can report the issue through the established system. This enables us to provide timely maintenance and sustainable service delivery.
In partnership with IRC WASH, we have begun developing a regional data management system based on the best experiences from the three woredas.
Collaboration is the bureau's main focus. We plan to identify the region's main gaps and collaborate with partner organisations to fill them. We are establishing an NGO forum to improve collaboration, identify gaps and stakeholder roles, and scale up the region's best practices.
Water scheme construction is primarily the government's responsibility, but non-governmental organisations are providing support due to budget limitations. Therefore, the government is focusing on creating an enabling environment by identifying and revising gaps in its proclamations and directives. So far, we have identified gaps in the monitoring system, spare part supply, maintenance service, and training for rural water utilities.
Tariff collection is essential for the sustainability of water service. No water scheme can provide sustainable water service without the community's tariff contribution. Therefore, we have developed tariff collection guidelines for urban and rural settings.“
The Amhara Regional Water Bureau is supported in its mandate of water provision through the Safe Water Initiative in Ethiopia, coordinated by the Millennium Water Alliance. The Safe Water Initiative is funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and focuses on systems strengthening and service delivery to ensure reliable and safely managed water to one million people in low-income households, health facilities and schools in Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda.
As part of its five-year strategic plan, Conrad N. Hilton commissioned a review of its investments and approaches in the target geographies. The primary aim of the review was to investigate the relevance, effectiveness and sustainability of different Service Delivery Models (SDM), including community-based safe water management, publicly owned water utilities and private-sector approaches such as Safe Water Enterprises (SWE).
In 2023, as part of the review, IRC produced on behalf of Aguaconsult Ltd and for the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation the film 'In service to everyone'. For this film, IRC's Dechan Dalrymple and Tsegaye Yeshiwas, interviewed Mamo Yalew in September. This article is an adaptation and summarised version of the full interview.
