By Emebet Demeke
Awater shortage in a refugee host community only exacerbates the living situation.
Moges Hadgu, an Eritrean refugee living in Dabat Alemwach Eritrean refugee camp, has experienced this.
Hadgu is one of the over 166,000 Eritrean refugees living in Ethiopia, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The refugees stay in different camps across Ethiopia.
After trekking through the Eritrean desert in 2017, the 31-year-old settled in Hitsats refugee camp in the Tigray region, only to relocate to Dabat Alemwach Eritrean refugee camp after the outbreak of the Tigray war in 2020.
Hadgu’s ‘newfound home’ is in Dabat District — one of the clean water-stressed areas, but it also has an abundance of groundwater in Ethiopia.
Kasehun Awoke, Head of the Water and Energy Office of Dabat District, says so far, “We have only one deep well in Dabat City. There are three deep wells in rural areas, 15 mild wells, 176 hand wells, 41 wells, and 235 water facilities.”
“Out of 35,000 people in our city,” he explains, “only 15000 have access to clean water while only 47.2 percent of the 165,000 residents in rural areas have access to clean water.
He notes that other people in the community use small springs and rivers, adding that the capacity of the district to accommodate a large number of refugees is complicated by insufficient water supply.
Despite the situation, people are determined to live on.
“Even if life is uncomfortable, we will cope with the problem and take refuge in it. I will stay here until the process I started to go to another country is successful,” Hadgu says.
The Underground Water Solution
According to Merigeta Solomon Tesfamariam, chairman of Eritrean refugees at Dabat Alemwach refugee camp, many refugees get water from a deep well dug near the camp. Despite availability, groundwater is not usually clean for drinking.
Hadgu says the camp has no access to clean water, so it is expected to use small hand-dug water wells everywhere in the camp.
“The area has groundwater potential, and water can be found by digging two meters. We use the water we get from the ground for washing clothes, washing dishes, cooking, and even small gardens,” he observes.
According to Hadgu, some refugees treat the water from the well to make it safe for drinking, but this comes at a monetary cost. He explains that those who do not have money use untreated well water, which poses significant health risks, especially to children.
According to Kasehun, authorities in the district are opting to use deep wells, medium-deep wells, hand wells, and spring pumping to meet the water demands of residents.
To supplement the efforts of local authorities, Merigeta says that efforts are being made to meet the total daily water demand with the collaboration of aid organizations like Innovative Humanitarian Solutions (IHS), which has supported the area in water and latrine construction.
To further respond to the water inadequacy in the area, the Development Response to Displacement Impact Project (DRDIP) has completed the design work to build a water line in the city to provide sufficient water.
Also, design work has been done to build water lines in six rural areas, with all these water options connected to deep wells.
Ethiopia is one of the main refugee-hosting countries in Africa, with more than 900,000 refugees and asylum seekers in 2023.
Efforts to improve water availability are interventions that contribute to the betterment of refugees’ lives.
This article was supported by InfoNile with funding from the Nile Basin Initiative.