Multiple uses of rural household water supplies for livelihood in Ethiopia

Provision of access to safe drinking water for the rural population of Ethiopia is at lower level attributing to 60% of the current disease burden and 15% of the total deaths mainly among the large population of children under five. To overcome this problem, the government of Ethiopia has adopted universal access program (UAP) to provide access to safe water supply for 98% of the rural population by 2012. The 3 years program performance evaluation has revealed that there is a delay in implementation. Among others finance and sustainability of services are found to be the main challenges for the success of the program. Thus implementation strategy, which significantly enhances community participation in investment and operation and maintenance become a necessity for accelerated implementation of the program. Accordingly, multiple uses of rural household water supplies for livelihood are adopted as one of the strategies for accelerated implementation of the UAP.