ASSESSMENT OF WATER SUPPLY IN GONDAR TOWN, ETHIOPIA: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

Gondar town has been through a problem of sustainable potable water supply in the past ten years. Even if the modern water supply system was installed since 1930’s and has been expanding its service in the coming years, still the demand is not satisfied and large number of people do not have access to adequate amount of potable water. As a result residents are forced to get water from unprotected sources which are far from their homes. Besides, they also buy water frequently from illegal persons and incur additional cost. In line with these the main objective of this study was to assess the magnitude of water supply and its challenges and dynamics associated with unsustainable water supply in Gondar town. A survey was conducted on a randomly selected 120 House Holds and interviews with purposefully selected key informants. Emphasis was put on examining the nature of the problems of water supply and challenges the service providers and households faced. The study has confirmed that the town water supply service could not cover the demand of it with present existing capacity and based on the research outcome only 43.3 % of the respondents get water through their own private taps. All areas of the town could not get equal and proportional service and the tariff set is neither fair among the poor and rich households nor generates sufficient revenue to cover investment costs. The root causes of the challenging problems are institutional, financial, human and material resource constraints. That is, the water supplying service in the town is unsustainable; it is socially inequitable, economically inefficient and environmentally unsound. This study presents the following recommendations to ensure sustainable water supply in the study area including synchronizing different water sources, conserving water sources, family planning, demand management, demand oriented supply, participating different actors, mobilizing financial resources, and staffing organizational structure with skilled personnel and equipping it with material facilities. Key words: Water sources, supply and demand, production, distribution, consumption, accessibility, willingness to pay, cost recovery, sustainable water supply: Gondar