Making a range of good quality household water filters available to customers is an additional service and an intermediate solution until water supply entities can supply safe drinking water 24/7.
| Title | The utility approach : extended distribution for household water filters in Ethiopia |
| Publication Type | Conference Paper |
| Year of Publication | 2019 |
| Authors | Foppen, AH, Holtslag, H, Chekol, CG |
| Secondary Title | All systems go! WASH Systems Symposium, The Hague, the Netherlands, 12-14 March 2019 |
| Pagination | 8 p.: 1 fig. |
| Date Published | 03/2019 |
| Publisher | IRC |
| Place Published | The Hague, The Netherlands |
| Publication Language | English |
| Keywords | household water filters, HWTS, Safe water for all, SDG6.1, utility approach |
| Abstract | Many towns and cities in Ethiopia has no safe drinking water supply 24/7. Broken pipes and power cuts allow contamination to enter the piped systems. In poorer and peri-urban areas especially, water is not delivered seven days per week so water has to be stored. Non-delivery of safe water has multi-fold causes which are widely known but are not often openly admitted for obvious reasons. In 2016, the Dutch organisation Aqua for All started to discuss this water quality issue with a number of local water authorities in Ethiopia who acknowledged these problems. The result was that water utilities, private sector suppliers and Aqua for All together started an innovation called ‘the utility approach’. The idea is to make a range of good quality household water filters available to customers as an additional service and as an intermediate solution until water supply entities can supply safe drinking water 24/7. This utility approach is becoming an example for water authorities in Ethiopia and can eventually become an example for other African countries which face similar challenges. This extended distribution channel for household waterfilters is also an option for rural areas where water quality problems are even more critical than in urban areas. Zonal Water Utilities could act as distribution centres for Point of Use treatment solutions and could become adequately service remote communities. |
