■What is EWTEC?
Capacity building in
the fields of groundwater development and water supply was crucial
issue for Ethiopian Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) as a managing
authority while the regional governments or government enterprises
in the regions retain substantial number of drilling crews and
drilling machineries.
Therefore the Groundwater Development and Water Supply Training Center was established
in 1998 by the coordinated efforts of MoWR and Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA). The objectives of the training center was to provide practical
training courses for the staffs of central and regional governments involved
in the groundwater development and water supply programs with technical assistance
of JICA experts.
The technical cooperation project mentioned above continued until January 2005
and the initial project's objectives were accomplished. MoWR and JICA agreed
to add new role to the training center and the Phase-2 project was initiated
in March 2005 with new name of the training center that is "Ethiopia Water
Technology Center (EWTEC)".
■Project Summary
(1) Project Title
Groundwater Development
and Water Supply Training Project Phase-2 (Ethiopia Water Technology
Center/EWTEC) in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
(2) Contents of Cooperation
*To support implementation of various training courses
in the fields of groundwater development and water supply in EWTEC.
*To conduct research and development activities regarding groundwater
management and appropriate technology development in the particular
sites that could provide teaching materials, idea of revision of
existing training curricula and occasion for field practices.
*To support other donorsﾕ rural water supply schemes with regard
to their training part.
(3) Cooperation Period
2005 March 15 - 2008 March 14 (3 years)
(4) Counterpart Authority
Ministry of Water Resources
(5) Target Group
Staff of central and regional governments involved
in the groundwater development and water supply programs
■Necessity of Cooperation
The coverage rate of water supply in Ethiopia remains
to be one of the lowest in the world and moreover the lowest among
sub-Sahara African countries, i.e. 24% in Ethiopia and 57% in average
of sub-Sahara countries. Groundwater is the prime source of water
supply schemes in Ethiopia for both rural and urban communities as
it is estimated that 90% of water supply is covered by groundwater.
Capacity building in the fields of groundwater development and water
supply was crucial issue for Ethiopian Ministry of Water Resources
(MoWR) as a managing authority while the regional governments or
government enterprises in the regions retain substantial number of
drilling crews and drilling machineries. Therefore the Groundwater
Development and Water Supply Training Project (Phase-1) was established
in 1998 by the coordinated efforts of MoWR and Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The objectives of the project was to increase the human resources
and institutional capacity of both Regional Water Bureaus and its
affiliate bodies by means of providing very practical knowledge,
practical techniques and skills to their staffs through various training
courses at the newly established training center in Addis Ababa (Groundwater
Development and Water Supply Training Center). The training center
has conducted various training courses and the total number of trainees
in 7 years of Phase-1 project is 717. The training center holds an
important position in capacity building concerning groundwater development
and water supply in Ethiopia.
Several donors such as World Bank and African Development Bank have
made a commitment to assist groundwater development schemes in Ethiopia
in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals that is to increase
the water supply coverage rate from 24% at present to 63% in 2015.
Though huge amount of budget is being inputted from donors water
supply coverage is not increased as it is planned in the Water Sector
Development Program 2002-2016 which was prepared by MoWR. Water supply
services have been transferred to the regional governments from the
central government in accordance with the decentralization policy
and nowadays the main players of the services are Woreda Water Desk
(district office). So the following demands have been increasing
recently:
(1) Capacity building of Woreda Water Desk
7,000 staff members have to be assigned in total of
504 Woreda in the country but 60% of them are vacant now. MoWR has
established 7 training centers since 2003 (8th is under preparation)
to provide 1 to 2 years training course for those staffs (staff candidates).
However most of the centers are providing theory (lecture) mainly
because of a lack of practical training equipment.
(2) Groundwater management
Groundwater management is a key issue in water sector in Africa.
Groundwater development without an appropriate plan and management
would cause several troubles such as digging failure, drying
up of wells, industrial pollution of water sources, etc. So advanced
technology for groundwater management should be introduced to
not only Ethiopia but also other regional countries.
(3) Operation and maintenance
Though the regional governments have constructed a large number
of water facilities with a certain budgetary assistance of donors,
there are may malfunctioning water facilities all over the country.
Main reasons of those are lack of proper maintenance so demand
of operation and maintenance skill training is still high.
In consideration of the situation mentioned above, the training
center established as a result of technical cooperation project between
MoWR and JICA is required to expand its roles and responsibilities.
■Framework of Cooperation
(1) Project Purpose
Human resources for appropriate groundwater and water supply management
increase.
(2) Outputs
1) Technical trainings regarding groundwater and water supply are
conducted.
2) Training courses are developed and improved through field research
activities.
3) Teaching materials on groundwater management are developed.
