Country Director | IRC Ethiopia
Lemessa Mekonta is the Country Director for IRC WASH Ethiopia based in Addis Ababa.
He has diversified and hands on experiences in different aspects of water resources, water supplies, and sanitation working for government, private businesses and NGOs in various capacities ranging from expert to managerial level. Key areas of his experiences include program strategy development, partnership facilitation and coordination with different actors, project management, provision of trainings on water supplies, study and design for rural and urban water supplies, urban water utility management, water quality monitoring, leading action research including rural water supply operation and maintenance with appropriate technology identification and use, and private service providers engagement.
Lemessa is a hydrogeologist by background with over 23 years' experience in water and sanitation sector.
Successful pathways secured uptake by government and had flexible programming. Read more...
While alignment on a common vision may be a defining aspect of WASH collaborative approaches, some alignment around specific activities is also... Read more...
Three factors – legitimacy of the collaborative, aligning activities within clear mandates, and demonstrating value – all work together to secure... Read more...
An approach is developed to assess WASH risks in marginal populations that are poorly understood and served through conventional approaches. Read more...
This study provides new evidence that WASH access and practices are associated with self-reported reproductive tract infection symptoms in rural... Read more...
A lack of sanitation access in the community is a significant risk factor for anaemia and child growth stunting, but not for incidence of diarrhoea... Read more...
Should the Community-Based Management (CBM) model remain a central development strategy? Whay we need to know about water point functionality as it... Read more...
Spreading the cost of faecal waste removal over a series of monthly payments could make it more affordable for poor households and help kick start... Read more...
Handwashing after contact with excreta is poorly practised globally, despite the likely positive health benefits. Read more...
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) need to be better integrated into government systems that will endure post-implementation. Further, there is a... Read more...
The costs of a pilot small-scale container-based sanitation service (CBS) were higher than those of large-scale waterborne sewerage, but economies of... Read more...
This study identifies the effectiveness, costs and cost drivers of SODIS, ceramic filters and biosand filters. Read more...
While the importance of hygiene is increasingly being recognized, far less consideration has been given to the role of the complete WASH package in... Read more...
In Chennai, India, stakeholders support the establishment of an independent state groundwater authority to secure sustainable water supply. Read more...
This article estimates the burden of diarrhoeal diseases from exposure to inadequate water, sanitation and hand hygiene in low- and middle-income... Read more...