Siraro Water Enterprise - Ethiopia

Improved water supply in Shalla

Background

Shalla, a region in Ethiopia in the Rift Valley Lakes Basin, is facing extreme drought. The population has limited access to safe drinking water and often has to walk long distances to reach expensive and low quality drinking water. Woord en Daad, a Dutch NGO with the mission to overcome poverty by sustainably transforming people and societies, started a water project with Siraro Water Enterprise in Shashemene in Ethiopia with the aim to increase water supply in the Shalla region. World Waternet joined this project  to ensure that the water investments are well absorbed by Siraro Water Enterprise and that the current water supply system is well operated and maintained.

Our impact

In 2021, a World Waternet team explored the current organizational strengths and weaknesses of Siraro, the existing asset management practices and the most important challenges regarding increasing the water supply. The team, with local support of Woord en Daad, the Well in Action and very committed staff of Siraro, saw several opportunities to improve water supply. Capacity building will hence continue in 2022 and 2023 on the following work streams:

• Increase and improve water supply to customers
• Increase sustainable revenues for Siraro Water Enterprise
• Implement a decision making framework for operational improvements for the board