Eleven-year-old Eman used to wake up early every morning to make an hour-and-a-half round-trip journey to collect water. “I knew the water I would bring back to my family was unsafe and exposed to germs and diseases,” Eman says, “but we did not have any other choice.”
Eman and her family live in a small town in Ethiopia’s Tigray region that faced a severe water shortage when defective electrical switchboards disabled the town’s water boreholes — shafts drilled deep into the ground to tap into clean, underground water sources. During the war in the Tigray region (2020-2022), major water supply infrastructure sustained damage or fell into disrepair due to lack of maintenance. Even after a peace deal was reached, tension and instability remain, and repairs are challenging to navigate.
With the boreholes inoperable, nearly 10,000 people in Eman’s town lost access to clean water. As women and girls are typically responsible for fetching water for their families, many girls like Eman were left with no choice but to travel long distances each day to collect water from rivers and other unsafe water sources.
Eman would fill two 5-gallon jerry cans (large, reusable plastic jugs) with water every morning at a stream before walking back to her home. When full, each jerry can weighs about 40 pounds.
The boreholes in Eman’s town had been inoperable for several months when the local water authority contacted FHI 360 for assistance. FHI 360’s team conducted a detailed assessment of the repairs needed and evaluated the impact of the water shortage on the community.
“During rainy time, cholera is a very massive problem because runoff can bring cholera contamination from a different area and [Eman’s] community used river water. They were directly affected,” says Zemed Menberu, an engineer and team leader for FHI 360’s water, sanitation and hygiene efforts in Tigray.
“If you improve the water supply system… the health system improves and nutrition improves as well,”
— Zemed Menberu, engineer
Increased risk of illness is not the only concern when water systems break down. These trips pose safety risks, and the difficult, time-consuming trips were also taking a toll on young girls’ education.
“This long journey often made me late for school, and I missed classes on multiple occasions,” explains Eman. “As a result of this, I was suspended from school.”
The community needed a better solution. Instead of relying on trucking in water during humanitarian crises, which is an expensive and temporary fix, FHI 360 works with water quality experts and engineers like Menberu to repair and improve boreholes, pumps and pipes so the community once again has reliable, consistent access to clean water.
Menberu was an engineering professor before the war. His intense drive to connect communities to clean water inspired him to apply his expertise to humanitarian work.
“Thanks to FHI 360 and the American people, the community and I are now able to access and fetch clean water close to our homes without traveling long distances.”
— Eman, 11
This overarching impact on health is what drives the FHI 360 team to rehabilitate water systems across Ethiopia, despite the uncertainty that remains. They support everything from major reconstruction to expand water access for hospitals and schools to minor borehole repair, so that everyone, no matter how remote their town, can get clean water.
Working in coordination with Tigray’s regional and zonal water authorities, Menberu and the team ensured that the borehole switchboards in Eman’s town were repaired. With safe, clean water again flowing to her community’s taps, Eman was able to rejoin her fifth-grade class.
Improving access to safe water for communities like Eman’s is one of many lifesaving steps critical to helping the Tigray region move forward from its recent civil war.
“Thanks to FHI 360 and the American people,” says Eman, “The community and I are now able to access and fetch clean water close to our homes without traveling long distances.”
ABOUT THIS STORY
The Integrated Services for Humanitarian Implementation – Ethiopia (ISHI-E III) project is made by possible by the generous support of the American people. The ISHI-E III project provides lifesaving services to people who fled violence or were otherwise affected by conflict in the Tigray region through a comprehensive humanitarian response focused on health, nutrition, protection, and water, sanitation and hygiene. Nearly two million people fled their homes due to war in the Tigray region between 2020 and 2022, and the resulting humanitarian crisis continues today.
FHI 360 is committed to carrying out humanitarian solutions that address communities’ urgent needs and restore long-term, lifesaving services for all. Learn more about our work in humanitarian response.