Wajjuu Bridge and Water System
Wajjuu, Ethiopia
Greater Commission Ministry (GCM) is an organization committed to alleviating challenges caused by extreme poverty in southern and western regions of Ethiopia. After expanding into Wajjuu, a group of rural villages to the north of Addis Ababa, GCM discovered that the region faced a deep need for sustainable drinking water. Women and children were walking up to 10km each day to fetch water, and despite this high-risk and labor-intensive effort, the water itself posed additional risks for community health. Upon this discovery, GCM reached out to IDD to help develop a sustainable water system for the villages.
An IDD team then traveled to the Wajjuu communities to conduct field studies and meet with the local leaders. With an emphasis placed on the economic and social dynamics of sustaining a water system, IDD proposed two different solutions. For the short-term, temporary improvements were recommended at the most-used water sources in the region to immediately increase water quality. These included constructing fences around water sources for protection from livestock and educating community members on how to reduce other sources of contamination. While beneficial, these improvements were not a permanent solution. Therefore, the IDD team also identified locations for the phased installation of hand-pump operated deep wells for community members to have clean, sustainable water for years to come.
An IDD team then traveled to the Wajjuu communities to conduct field studies and meet with the local leaders. With an emphasis placed on the economic and social dynamics of sustaining a water system, IDD proposed two different solutions. For the short-term, temporary improvements were recommended at the most-used water sources in the region to immediately increase water quality. These included constructing fences around water sources for protection from livestock and educating community members on how to reduce other sources of contamination. While beneficial, these improvements were not a permanent solution. Therefore, the IDD team also identified locations for the phased installation of hand-pump operated deep wells for community members to have clean, sustainable water for years to come.
In addition to clean water, the Wajjuu communities also faced a great need for a vehicular bridge across Samaroo Stream. During times of heavy rain, the level of this stream commonly rose beyond the height of the existing footbridge, making it impossible to cross and isolating many villages from the school, markets, and vital health care services. During the IDD visit, the team found a location for a new bridge crossing that was both a preferred location from an engineering standpoint and an ideal location central to the Wajjuu villages. The team performed a series of analyses to provide GCM with a preliminary design of a bridge with a 7-meter span as well as the associated construction cost estimate.
