Oromia Water Research Project
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Water is life. Water is a basic need. Water makes up most of the world, in fact the planet is 75% water. Every living organism needs water to make food, therefore water is the most important gift that nature has given mankind.
Water determines the quality of our lives because it is a component of good health. Availability of adequate water has positive effects in health, environment and social economic activities to any society. While a person can hardly stay for three weeks without taking food, the same person can hardly stay alive for 3 days without taking water.
Lack of/inadequate water supply leads to sickness, hunger and poverty. When water is scarce, potential disputes blow up between people who share a water point. Education of children may get compromised in arid areas because both parents and children are pre-occupied with search for water. In such areas, children may never break away from poverty.
The safety and quality of drinking water is further in jeopardy as the culture of open defecation has been socially accepted and widely practiced in most of the rural settings and partly in urban areas as well (Aschalew, 2009). For these very reasons, the prevalence of water born diseases caused by accessing to unsafe drinking water sources has increased at alarming rate. The low level of economic growth, coupled with soaring population growth, high level of illiteracy rate and low level of education/awareness have also contributed to the burden of ill health country wide (UNESCO, 2006).
Oromia is the largest and most populous regional state in the country. It has a land area of 359,620 square kilometers, straddling the middle of the country, and has a very varied topography (high mountains, valleys, rolling plains and lowlands, including part of the Rift Valley). Reflecting its geographical diversity, rainfall varies considerably from 400 mm a year in the south to 2,400 mm a year in the Western Highlands. Fifty percent of the
Water is life. Water is a basic need. Water makes up most of the world, in fact the planet is 75% water. Every living organism needs water to make food, therefore water is the most important gift that nature has given mankind.
Water determines the quality of our lives because it is a component of good health. Availability of adequate water has positive effects in health, environment and social economic activities to any society. While a person can hardly stay for three weeks without taking food, the same person can hardly stay alive for 3 days without taking water.
Lack of/inadequate water supply leads to sickness, hunger and poverty. When water is scarce, potential disputes blow up between people who share a water point. Education of children may get compromised in arid areas because both parents and children are pre-occupied with search for water. In such areas, children may never break away from poverty.
The safety and quality of drinking water is further in jeopardy as the culture of open defecation has been socially accepted and widely practiced in most of the rural settings and partly in urban areas as well (Aschalew, 2009). For these very reasons, the prevalence of water born diseases caused by accessing to unsafe drinking water sources has increased at alarming rate. The low level of economic growth, coupled with soaring population growth, high level of illiteracy rate and low level of education/awareness have also contributed to the burden of ill health country wide (UNESCO, 2006).
Oromia is the largest and most populous regional state in the country. It has a land area of 359,620 square kilometers, straddling the middle of the country, and has a very varied topography (high mountains, valleys, rolling plains and lowlands, including part of the Rift Valley). Reflecting its geographical diversity, rainfall varies considerably from 400 mm a year in the south to 2,400 mm a year in the Western Highlands. Fifty percent of the