Wagna Dega, Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a beautiful country in the Horn of Africa with unrivalled ancient history and fabulous wildlife. Ethiopia is home to 102 million people and it is currently one of the largest refugee-hosting countries in Africa. In the past twenty years, droughts have affected several areas of the country, leading to ponds, wells, streams and lakes drying up or becoming extremely shallow. 43 million Ethiopians lack access to safe water and 71 million lack access to improved sanitation. Many people living outside of the cities collect water from the shallow dried-up water sources, which are often contaminated with human and animal waste, worms, or disease, posing major health risks on the communities.

This project was undertaken as part of our campaign of projects that actively reduce carbon emissions. This project helped the community save their much needed wood which was previously being burnt daily to boil water. This project has also eliminated the many thousands of hours previously spent on walking to collect water.