6.1 Introduction to the OWNP components

The OWNP has ambitious targets to increase the national safe water supply coverage to 98.5%, sanitation (latrine use) coverage to 100%, and meet all other WASH-related targets. To achieve these goals, resources have to be allocated strategically to meet the required improvements for all Ethiopians. Based on this consideration, the OWNP has been divided into four major components:

  1. Rural and pastoral WASH
  2. Urban WASH
  3. Institutional WASH
  4. Programme management and capacity building.

Components, in the OWNP context, are categories that divide the programme into appropriate sub-sections according to physical and financial planning needs, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation activities. The first three components cover the provision of WASH services in each of the named settings. The fourth component, programme management and capacity building, is a cross-cutting intervention that aims to reinforce and facilitate implementation of plans in the first three components.

The first three components are further divided into sub-components by sector as follows:

Component 1: Rural and pastoral WASH

  • Rural water supply
  • Rural sanitation and hygiene promotion
  • Pastoral water supply
  • Pastoral sanitation and hygiene promotion.

Component 2: Urban WASH

  • Urban water supply
  • Urban sanitation and hygiene promotion.

Component 3: Institutional WASH

  • Institutional water supply
  • Institutional sanitation and hygiene promotion.

Each of the components has its own individual features. These relate to the characteristics of the beneficiaries, the environmental setting the people are living in, available infrastructure and capacities, and the partners or stakeholders concerned with promotion of WASH. These differences mean that each component requires an approach or mechanism particularly tailored to those circumstances.

Note that rural and pastoral WASH are grouped together as a single component, but for this study session they will be discussed separately. This is because, even though they can be categorised as one component using a simple rural-urban perspective, there are many attributes that make rural WASH and pastoral WASH quite different. There are differences in life style, livelihood, and traditions, as well as geographic and environmental characteristics that have implications for WASH promotion in these two settings.

In an Ethiopian context and in other less developed countries, rural refers to areas where homes are dispersed or people live in small settlements of less than 10,000 inhabitants. In rural areas, almost all inhabitants base their livelihood on agricultural activities. Typically, infrastructure such as roads, electric supply, water and sanitation, banking, telecommunication, transportation and other services are either non-existent or underdeveloped. Urban refers to towns and cities with larger population and relatively better socio-economic infrastructure and service provision. Semi-urban or peri-urban refers to human settlement areas that are between rural and urban settlements and share features of both. (Note that semi- means half, as in semi-circle. Peri- means around, as in perimeter.) This categorisation of human settlements in terms of rural or urban is based mainly on three important features: population size (number of inhabitants), socio-economic infrastructure and type of livelihood.

The following sections discuss the four components in more detail.

Learning Outcomes for Study Session 6

6.2 Rural WASH