Ethiopia has achieved the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7 target C for halving the number of people without access to safe water by 2015.Speaking at the 7th WASH multi-stakeholder forum recently, Ethiopian Water, Irrigation and Electricity Minister,MotumaMekassa said a total of 36 million people have benefited from access to potable water in the past five years.
According to the minister, the effort to provide safe water will continue in the future, even if some 67% have benefited from potable water.
Motuma further stated that in 2013 the government of Ethiopia launched One WASH National Program, a comprehensive seven years program in two phases with an initial two years transitional period phase from 2013 to 2015.
The transitional period phase program will be finalized at the end of this year and the second phase will be carried out from 2016-2020, he stated.
The One WASH National Program operationalizes agreements between four sector ministries with a total budget of 2.4 billion USD, the minister added.
Motuma pointed out that the program is the main instrument for the government of Ethiopia for achieving the goals set and would lead Ethiopia to the right path of achieving SDGs in WASH.
The government will give attention to align its GTP-2 targets with the Sustainable Development Goal targets of universal and equitable access to safe water, the minister indicated.
The United Nations Children’s Fund- UNICEF Representative to Ethiopia, Gillian Mellsop, congratulated the government of Ethiopia for achieving the MDG Goal 7 Target C.
Mellsopnoted that significant achievements have been made here and “we must acknowledge the unfinished business in delivering water and sanitation in Ethiopia, particularly to the vulnerable members of society.”
Mellsop said “We should redirect our financial and technical resources to remote, dry, hydro-geological challenging parts of Ethiopia and reinforce our attention to underserved population in order to promote equity within the WASH sector.”
