Greetings;

I am on assignment in Ethiopia to document examples of greywater and wastewater reuse e.g. ecosan at either household or community level (for possible upscaling in the future). These could be NGO based water projects with a reuse aspect. There are numerous well-documented pilot projects coming out of Arba Minch, and I am looking for examples beyond this.

Would you have any recommendations for people/organisations to get in touch with or places/projects to visit?

Thank you!
Eline

Greetings,

I am on short assignment for the International Water and Sanitation Center's (IRC)Ethiopia programme (www.irc.nl). IRC is looking at a number of case studies on multiple-use of water services, which essentially focuses on poverty reduction through access to water for both domestic and productive activities at different levels of scale (www.musgroup.net). As such, IRC is documenting cases of how MUS relates to livestock, traditional wells, community managed water sources, etc. in Ethiopia.

This particular assignment is unique (within the scope of the research) in that is exploring the productive reuse of grey and wastewater. One may argue that the reuse of grey or wastewater is productive by definition, but we are looking for additional practicalities and ecosan flagships this.

Essentially IRC is scoping EXISTING or completed country specific reuse projects/pilots for possible up-scaling in the future (in line with the MUS programme).

As for myself, I am a sanitation and hygiene expert based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. With a degree from Wageningen University, I approach sanitation from a closing the loop perspective. So I am very familiar with ecosan technologies and approaches, but their application in Ethiopia is what I am currently exploring.

Hope this is a sufficient description of the organisation, the research and the researcher. Again, any recommendations for pilots/projects/people in Ethiopia are very welcome.

Thank you,
Eline

Dear Cecile, thanks for pointing this out, I am curious to see the response by Janos (and I will move it to a different thread because it doesn't belong to this specific Ethiopia discussion).

Dear Eline, thanks for the clarification.
Have you already looked at the 6 SuSanA case studies form Ethiopia (which came out of the ROSA project in Arba Minch, except for one in Adama)?
See here:
susana.org/lang-en/case-studies?showby=y...l_0=0&country=68

Particularly the greywater tower idea could be of relevance for you? There is also the follow-on project from ROSA, called CLARA, taking place in Arba Minch. Sounds like a pretty important town for ecosan in Ethiopia... (check out the CLARA website: clara.boku.ac.at/)

Please let us know how things are progressing and post a link to the results in the end here on the forum?

Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear Elisabeth,

Thank you for your response. Yes, maybe I should have clarified again, but as the efforts in Arba Minch is VERY well documented, we are interested in all those projects and pilots that have had less visibility. (Hence the subject of this topic is "Ecosan in Ethiopia (minus Arba Minch)") ;p

Thanks.

Oh, sorry, I overlooked that (I have changed the topic of the thread now to make it clearer).
How about the Adama case study, is that interesting for you (or not because it is only UDDTs?).

I am wondering what makes Arba Minch so special in Ethiopia, is it maybe like Durban in South Africa, i.e. quite innovative compared to other towns in the country? Or is the university particularly good there?

Elisabeth

Greetings Elisabeth,

From what I understand about the ROSA project is that it was an EU-funded project focusing on resource oriented sanitation concepts for peri-urban areas in Africa; selected pilot sites included Arba Minch, Nakuru (Kenya), Arusha (Tanzania) and Kitgum (Uganda), led by the Institute of Sanitary Engineering and Water Pollution Control, BOKU - University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna. From what I understand, the CLARA project is the follow-up.

Through these projects, it seems that Arba Minch has become the hub of the ecosan discourse in Ethiopia. (Arba Minch University is also known as THE university for water management issues, perhaps there is some linkage there. Little side note: "Arba Minch" means "40 springs" in the local language).

As IRC is interested in the possible up-scaling, we essentially want to understand the success of (possibly ROSA derived) initiatives in different areas of the country. Hence we are trying to extend our knowledge beyond Arba Minch. (thank you for adjusting the title, Elisabeth).

The greywater tower is definately of interest to us. There is a somewhat similar initiative promoted by CRS; small backyard gardens called 'keyhole gardens' where the greywater is poured through a basket in the middle to allow the nutrients to flow through the compost into the soil...

The UDDTs at Adama University make for an interesting discussion, and I am curious to learn how this system is functioning now! Any up-to-date info on that?

Thank you for your communication Elisabeth on this subject!
~Eline

Thanks Elisabeth for moderating this feed, unfortunately we've had little response.

From the little bit more exploration on the subject that I've done here, it seems that the arborloos are a hugely successful ecosan intervention; and that the opportunity greywater reuse in greywater towers/keyhole garden is not yet maximised.

Do you know if the arborloos are popular around rural Africa?

Best,
Eline

Dear Eline,

Regarding the UDDT at the university campus in Adama, I made a couple of e-mail enquiries, but no success so far. I think the person would need to be called up or visited: Ato Tesfaye Bora, Head of General Service (contact details are given in the case study which I mentioned above). I suppose Adama is too far from where you are, otherwise you could pop by and pay a visit? But such an insolated pilot project won't help you much anyway.

About the Arborloos, yes I also read that they are very popular in Ehtiopia, e.g. see the work of CRS (Catholic Relief Services).
Two documents in the SuSanA library on Arborloos in Ethiopia:

Morgan, P. (2007). The Arborloo book for Ethiopia - How to make a simple pit toilet and grow trees and vegetables. Ecological Sanitation Research (EcoSanRes), Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI).
www.susana.org/lang-en/library?view=ccbk...mp;type=2&id=974

and
Hebert, P. (2010). Rapid assessment of CRS experience with Arborloos in East Africa. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Baltimore, USA.
www.susana.org/lang-en/library?view=ccbk...p;type=2&id=1316

More on Arborloos in Africa, see all the different publications by Peter Morgan:
www.susana.org/library?search=arborloo

For rural areas with low-income households, Arborloos seem to be a very good option.
Are they widespread in any African countries? In Ethiopia and Zimbabwe perhaps?

Regards,
Elisabeth