Water Supply Problem In Harar

I. General
Harar, the capital of the Harari People National Regional State, used to have piped water supply system approximately a century ago through capping Sofi spring. This system was backed up during the Italian occupation of 1936 to 1941 with capping of other springs. As time passed with the growth of population and the corresponding increment of demand, the above systems have been turned out insufficient.

II. Existing water supply system
The existing water supply system was designed and constructed in 1960 taking lake Alemaya as a source. At that time, the system had been designed to serve the estimated population of 70,000 with per capita consumption of 38 lit/c/day for 30 years.

Now a days the system was forced to stay in function beyond its design period serving for 146,000 population including Alemaya and Aweday towns, so different parts of the system are hardly giving the expected service.

Since the existing system is not able to satisfy the present demand of the population both in quality and quantity, the majority of the population in the town have to resort to other natural sources of water, which are generally contaminated.

As a result, water related disease (water born and water washed) are the major health problem of our region ranking six among top ten disease in the out patient visits.

III. Future Plan for Harar Town Water Supply System
Being a capital city of Harari regional government and historical town of Ethiopia, Harar has to have potable and sustainable water supply system. Different studies (by GWE in 1983 and Gibbs in1995) recommended that the existing water supply system could not fulfil the demand as well as meet the required quality of drinking water.

Accordingly, to solve the above-mentioned problems, the regional government has planned two strategies.

3.1 To Rehabilitate The Existing Water Supply System.

It is intended to prolong the existing water supply system by rehabilitating different parts of the treatment plant. The cost requirement for rehabilitation work is shown on table 1.
 

Table 1 Summery of Cost Estimate For Rehabilitation of Existing Water Supply System.
 
Item
Description
Project estimate

/ Birr /
1
 Dosing of chemical 339,872.10
2
 Clarifier 243,010.42
3
 Filters 463,895.78
4
 Equipment 530,319.15
5
 General item 616,876.84
Total 2,193,974.29
Contingency 25 % 548,493.57
Grand total  2,742,467.86

 
3.2 To Develop A New Water Supply System.

After assessing different water alternative sources in the region and the neighbouring regions, the ground water source has been selected as the best alternative. This ground water source is located at approximately 22 km west south of Dire Dawa town and which is about 70km from Harar town. The wells have been drilled and the required demand has been achieved.

Table 2 Summary of Cost Estimate For Harar Water Supply Project.
Item No
Description
Project cost 
/ Birr /
1
 General Items 5,000,000
2
 Civil Construction work 100,000,000
3
 Supply of pipes and Fittings 86,962,300
4
 Supply & installation of Electro Mechanical Equipment  21,641,700
5
 Well Drilling  2,100,000
6
 Access Road 1,665,000
7
 Power Supply  5,388,800
Total  222,757,800
Engineering Supervision & other 1 % 2,227,578
Grand Total 224,985,378

Conclusion
The populations of Harar are suffering from shortage of drinking water supply, both in quality and quantity. This is due to the existing water supply system have been forced to serve beyond its design period with out replacement by other new system for decade. As result, water related diseases are the major health problems in our region, any efforts towards alleviation of these problem's will not only benefits thousands of individuals who are suffering from repeated attacks of water related diseases, but it will undoubtedly decrease the over all morbidity and mortality rate of the region.

Accordingly, to solve the above-mentioned critical problem different studies have been conducted. These studies mainly focused on changing of Alemaya water supply system by a new water supply system, but lack of fund has forced us to be dependent only on the old system to the situation that unsafe water is being distributed through shifting system.

To sum up, Harari People National Regional Sate has forward its appeal to all concerned bodies for help in order to get solution for the elemental need of human being.

SOURCE:  HPNRS Information PR Service"
Mohammed Shash
IPRS Head
<infopr@telecom.net.et>