Tigray Regional Baseline Report
Tigray Regional Baseline Report
Tigray Regional Baseline Report
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Contents
1. ACRONYMS..............................................................................................................5
2 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................6
2.1 BACKGROUND......................................................................................................6
2.4 METHODOLOGY....................................................................................................8
5.1 GOVERNMENT BUDGET ALLOCATED TO REGION FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS............20
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5.2 GOVERNMENT BUDGET ALLOCATED AND UTILIZED FOR WASH FOR THE PAST THREE
YEARS....................................................................................................................20
5.3 WORLD BANK BUDGET ALLOCATED AND UTILIZED FOR WASH FOR THE PAST THREE
YEARS....................................................................................................................20
5.4 ADB BUDGET ALLOCATED AND UTILIZED FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS......................21
5.5 UNICEF FUND ALLOCATED AND UTILIZED FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS.....................21
7.1 PROBLEMS/CHALLENGES.....................................................................................21
7.2 RECOMMENDATIONS...........................................................................................22
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1. ACRONYMS
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2 INTRODUCTION
2.1 BACKGROUND
To achieve the ambitious goals laid out in the Growth & Transformation Plan (GTP) for safe
water and improved hygiene and sanitation, the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) is poised to
launch the new National Water Supply, Sanitation & Hygiene (WaSH) Program. The strategies
to achieve GTP target and set up for the National WaSH Program are described in the WaSH
Implementation Framework (WIF). The WIF recognizes that safe water and improved
sanitation and hygiene are not separate pursuits and that coordination efforts are required
among governmental agencies, civil society organizations and the private sector if targets are
to be achieved. It also recognizes that results will only be sustainable if responsibilities and
resources are devolved and communities are empowered to manage their own transformation.
The WIF incorporates the lessons learned from a number of water, sanitation and hygiene
projects implemented in Ethiopia over the past decade and builds on the foundations these
projects have laid. An example of this is the wider application of the highly decentralized
Community Management Project (CMP) formerly called Community Development Fund (CDF)
approach that empowers communities to manage funds and to directly manage the
construction of water points and school and health post sanitation facilities. The WIF also
engages non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as partners in WaSH ensuring that their high
level of motivation, innovative work and their readiness and capacity to respond to the needs
of the marginalized and most vulnerable people imbues the program as a whole. The WIF has
four main features; integration, harmonization, alignment and partnership.
A major feature of WaSH Implementation Framework (WIF) is that it has the leadership of four
government Ministries (MoFED, MoE, MoH & MoWE) that are pledged, through a Memorandum
of Understanding (MoU) to support an integrated National WaSH program that addresses
the needs of individuals, communities, schools and health posts more holistically and reduces
bureaucratic compartmentalization of services.
A further feature of the National WaSH Program is the harmonizing of donor inputs in terms
of programming and financial support. Major donors have agreed to support one program
rather than a variety of time and geographic specific projects, with the objective of
harmonizing their financial contributions through a single Consolidated WaSH Account (CWA)
allowing greater flexibility in planning and budgeting and greater efficiency in financial
management.
In the WaSH Implementation Framework the principles and basic procedures of the CDF
approach are mainstreamed into the National WaSH Program and the approach is now called,
the Community Managed Project (CMP) approach. It is presented as a clear and more than
acceptable, alternative funding mechanism to the conventional Woreda Grant which is in WIF
known as the Woreda Managed Project (WMP) funding mechanism.
The CMP approach is demand-driven. However, in order to foster this demand it is necessary
for regions and woredas to include the introduction and application of CMP in their strategic
planning and to undertake CMP awareness building. As CMP is “taken up” and appears in
Woreda WaSH Annual Plans, the Region will transfer the required funds to the Financing
Intermediary or Micro Finance Institution from the investment budget line.
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The GoE and the Government of Finland (GoF) in consultation with several sectoral
stakeholders initiated a new project for mainstreaming the CMP approach into a national
model, scaling up the CMP approach into new regions and further strengthening the CMP
implementation in Amhara Region. The new project is called “Community-Led Accelerated
WASH” (COWASH) in Ethiopia. COWASH has three components: Component I is to provide
scaling-up support at the Federal level, Component 2 is to support CMP scaling up in new
regions and component 3 is to support Amhara CMP scaling up. The first Phase was launched
in July 2011 and will end on July 2014. Total contribution from Finland is 11 Million EUR.
The overall objective of the project is accelerated implementation of the Universal Access Plan
(UAP) through the adoption and application of CMP approach. The project purpose is to
establish CMP as an efficient mechanism for rural water supply development in Regions
suitable for its introduction.
The overall objective of the study is to collect necessary baseline information from the seven
woredas selected in Tigray region and to establish required benchmarks for future analysis of
progress, outputs, outcomes and impact of the project intervention. Baseline information
collected is to serve the understanding and planning of:
Practised multiple use systems in water supply and liquid waste management
Awareness and knowledge of the people and instruments already in use in making
people aware of forthcoming climate change impacts and how people are ready to face
these new challenges in the future.
The present situation of WaSH implementation in order to plan and budget the WaSH
services.
The availability of finance for CMP in Tigray taking into account Regional Government
resources and resources available from other WaSH stakeholders.
The existing WaSH governance in Tigray and include analysis of the efficiency of the
existing governance.
Existing strategic WaSH plans at woreda level need to be analyzed in order to assess
the need to additional strategic planning training.
The availability of private sector for drilling works for shallow well and government
budget for drilling works.
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2.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of work include assessing the socio economic profile, overview of the water supply,
sanitation & hygiene situation, institutional capacity assessment of WaSH actors & assessment
of the WaSH program implementation of the selected seven woredas for COWASH support in
the Tigray region.
2.4 METHODOLOGY
a) Document Review
Review of policy & strategy documents of the government in the water, sanitation &
hygiene sector, legal frameworks and reports in the water, sanitation & hygiene sector.
b) In-depth interview & Focus Group Discussion
Undertake in-depth interview & focus group discussion with Regional WaSH Technical
Committee & Woreda WaSH Team to gain a better understanding for the study.
c) Data Analysis
Collection and analysis of data from the Four Regional Sector Offices (BoFED, BoH,
BoWE, BoE) and the Seven Selected Woreda Sector Offices (water, finance, health &
education) in the Tigray Region.
Tigray is located on the north part of Ethiopia and is one of the 9 regional states and city
administrations of the country. The total area of Tigray is about 54,569.25 km². It is bordered
in the north by Eritrea, in the south by Amhara Region, in the East by Afar and in the west by
Sudan. Tigray is administratively divided into 7 Zones (one especial Zone, Mekelle), 46
Woredas (12 urban and 34 rural Woredas) and 763 Kebeles (702 Rural and 61 Urban tabias).
The region’s climatic zones are lowland/kola/, temperate/weina dega/ & highland/dega/. The
altitude of the regional capital is 2100 meter above sea level. The daily weather condition runs
from 11ºc to 23ºc. The annual amount of rainfall of Mekelle town ranges from 900 – 1800
mm.
According to the projected census of 2007, the region has a total population of 4,806,843
(3,787,667 in rural & 1,019,176 in urban) population in 2010. The total population in 2010 can
be disaggregated by gender as follows, Rural: Male 1,884,297, Female 1,903,370; Urban:
Male 481,388, Female 537,788. Agriculture is the main means of subsistence in the Region, in
which 85% of the population depends for subsistence. The annual population growth rate for
Tigray is 2.52%. In Tigray, total fertility rate is 5.1 children/woman of reproductive age.
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The road networks of the region are 4,949km dry weather, 2,522km all weather and 497km
paved road. The number of urban and rural regional electricity coverage from the national grid
hydropower source of energy is 100% & 15%, respectively. Dedebit Credit & Saving Institution
is the main micro finance institution in the region.
Based on the health profile of Tigray health bureau published at the end of 2003 EFY, there
were 15 hospitals (categorized as one regional hospital, one referral hospital, 6 zonal
hospitals and 7 district hospitals ), 209 health centres and 572 health posts in the region.
From the total of 781 health institutions (excluding hospitals) in the region, 129 health
institutions have water facilities and 781 health institutions have latrine facilities. Regionally,
there were 18 TVET, 123 secondary schools, a total of 1964 Elementary schools, 179
alternative basic education( ABE) with 2 Universities and one additional on progress (Adigrat
University) and 2 colleges in 2003 EFY. In regard to the status of water supply facilities in
elementary schools, 718 schools had water facilities in 2003 EFY. It could be observed that
water supply is serious problem in schools and health institutions.
The water sector is one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate variability and change.
Drought and flood are the most important climate change hazards for the sector. Drought
affects the availability of safe water making it difficult for sustainable provision of water
provision of water services due to dried/reduced yield of water points as well as making it
difficult development of new sources as the ground water will get deeper in to the ground
increasing dry wells to be abandoned after drilling.
A decline in water availability during dry periods has resulted in changing priorities of water
use. Women and girls are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Women and
girls need to invest more time in collecting water from distant sources making time more
constrained to income generating activities and to attend schools.
Flood exacerbates the situation of hygiene and sanitation increasing the risk of contamination
and spread of communicable diseases.
Hence some areas of the region is vulnerable to disasters that require and emergency WaSH
response, for example drought, flash floods and outbreaks of waterborne diseases.
The region is implementing the water resource management policy to address climate change
adaptation. The water resource management policy has the following provisions
Construction of small dams and rainwater harvesting schemes to meet water supply for
domestic and irrigation use
Undertake soil conservation measures that help to reduce soil erosion & siltation and
also protect the pollution of water sources
Implement watershed management and water conservation programs & projects that
promote local community participation
Multiple use water systems are low cost, equitable water supply systems that provide
communities with water for both domestic and productive needs. There is a practice of
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incorporating multiple use investment packages in some areas where new water supply system
is established to optimize economic benefits that derive from an improved water supply.
The current coverage of water supply of Tigray region is still at its lowest level. The demand
for clean water and appropriate sanitation facilities is increasing from time to time. Different
stakeholders intervening in the sector are striving to meet these demands by constructing
water supply schemes of different scale. As a key player in the overall efforts being made to
meet the peoples’ demand for these basic and righteous services, the regional government
water resources bureau has constructed a large number of water facilities of different scales.
The major source of potable water for the region is mainly from groundwater resource,
Although we have not collected regional data on the number and list of rural tabias appropriate
for CMP implementation, we are informed as there are more tabias appropriate for CMP
implementation in the region.
The use of surface water for domestic water supply is not so much practiced in the region.
Adwa water supply and currently Axum water supply are the only towns in the region that uses
surface water source from Dam source built at Adwa area.
From the above schemes, 481(9.73%) hand dug wells, 375 (10.26%) shallow wells, 254
(20.08%) springs and 18 (9.8%) motorized schemes were non functional schemes (end of
2003 EFY). From the total water supply schemes in the region in 2003 EFY, 1128 (11.2%)
water supply schemes were non-functional.
The number of motorized schemes does not include schemes of large towns. According to the
regional water bureau classification; Korem, Maichew, Alamata, Mekelle, Adigrat, Wukro,
Axum, Adwa, Abiy Adi, Sheraro, Endasilasie and Humera towns are grouped as large towns.
There were 66 motorized, 1 dam, 3 springs and 9 shallow well sources in these towns at the
end of 2003 EFY. The rural & urban water supply coverage in 2003 EFY was 62% & 66%
respectively.
According to the Regional Health Bureau annual profile of 2003 EFY, the ten top diseases are
registered as main results of poor Hygiene and Sanitation conditions.
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The health service and sanitation coverage in the region in 2003 EFY was 83% and 87%
respectively. The utilization rate of latrine facilities at the end of 2003 EFY was 34%.
Although, latrine facilities data by Zone and by type including status of latrine facilities were
not simple to get in the assessment, the total latrine coverage in the Region at the end of
2003 EFY was 87% (a total of 831,707 HHs).
Out of the total 955, 985 HHs in the Region, the level of latrine facilities utilization rate at the
end of 2003 EFY was 34% (325,035 HHs), 506,672 HHs who have constructed latrine are not
utilizing their latrines. The number of HHs graduated as model HHs are 809,560 (over 84.7%
of the total HHs). This is a very good indicator for hygiene and sanitation improvement in the
health extension program (HEP).
Although there are no organizations that could provide private latrine and hand washing
supplies so far, there is a good potential to organize graduates from Regional TVET Bureau and
members from Regional social associations such as Women and Youth associations so as to
produce latrine and hand washing facilities. In regard to sanitation marketing WaSH
stakeholders should work to organize sanitation supply production and willingness to pay by
beneficiaries through awareness creation and sustained promotion.
There is behavioural change program going on with special tools in the Region at different
centres through community led approaches such as community conversation and Community
led total sanitation.
There is Regional health partners’ forum and Regional Sanitation technical working group
organized at Regional Health Bureau which are critically supporting the Regional Health
Bureau in improving the condition of Sanitation through technical support of different actors.
The Water Resource Management Policy and the Water Sector Strategy have explicitly stated
that every citizen has the fundamental right to access safe water for his/her basic needs. The
overall objective of the Water Resource Management Policy is to enhance the well-being and
productivity of the people through sustainable development of water resources for equitable
social and economic benefits.
Vision: To improve the health & quality of life of the people through provision of water &
sanitation services on a sustainable basis.
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4.1.2 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Currently, the Regional Water Resource Bureau has got an approved organizational structure
with three technical core processes, i.e. Water Resource Management, Water Supply Core
Process and Irrigation Core Processes and one Support Core Process. The regional water
supply core process is mainly dealing with water supply design, study, supervision and
maintenance works. The regional bureau deals mainly with large scale works such as deep well
study and drilling supervision, large water supply piped system study and design and
supervision works. The Regional Water Resource Bureau organizational structure is depicted
below.
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Fig.1 Regional Water Resources Bureau Organizational Structure
Bureau Head
Core
Core Core Core Support process of
process for process for process for Process Support
Support Process
Water Water Irrigation Internal Audit Public Process
Supply Resource Relation
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Responsibilities of the water supply core process;
1. The core process shall study, design, construct, supervise and approved the completed
new and expansion of urban and rural water supply projects.
2. Prepare working manual for the existing and newly constructed water supply projects
and monitor its performance.
3. The core process shall perform physical, chemical and bacteriological studies of the
water supply facilities and approved its portability based on the regional quality
standard.
4. Prepare and submit draft standard document for the water supply study, design,
construction and maintenance works; and follow up its practicality.
5. Support Preparation of Business plan for small towns and rural towns’ water supply
offices and search financial support for the expansion works.
6. Follow up of the realization and equity of the project investment cost recovery versus
tariff setting of water supply offices.
7. Conduct training on water supply scheme handling, usage and maintenance for
communities and WaSHCOs,.
8. Ensure capacity building at scheme level and follow up their sustainability.
9. Introduce water lifting technologies, conduct training for new technologies, prepare
operational manual and distribute them.
10. Work for the quality and sustainability of water supply schemes by giving due attention
to operation and maintenance in collaboration with concerned offices.
11. Assess technical gap in the core process, arrange training to bring the required capacity
in the experts in collaboration with universities and other institutions.
12. Work on the community participation in collaboration with government and non
government agencies.
13. Provide or ensure the availability of materials such as pipes, chemicals and lifting
technologies.
14. Ensure the overall sustainability & quality of the scheme services.
The organizational structure related to the regional water supply core process has totally an
approved post of 146 personnel (110 technical staff and 36 support staff). The number of
professionals in the mentioned core process at the regional level was 83, in 2003 EFY.
In the implementation of on-going national WaSH program, there are regional WaSH steering,
technical and coordination committees organized with clear roles and responsibilities in
managing the regional WaSH program from different Regional WaSH stakeholders (Water,
Health and Education). However, the level of functionality of these bodies is very low and
needs improvement through strengthening current working modality of the Regional WaSH
program. Moreover, there is Wash Movement’s regional chapter which supports WaSH
improvement through promotion and capacity building to communities and Regional
stakeholders. Hygiene and Sanitation message is included with the family health card of the
FMoH.
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Although different WaSH manuals & guidelines are available in the BoWE, these manuals and
guidelines are not properly distributed to regional and woreda WaSH stakeholders.
The regional RPCU planned to undertake quarterly monitoring and follow-up activities to
woredas and kebeles though not implemented as needed. There is weakness in the monitoring
system as WaSH supported woredas are not visited for long time. There is no feedback in field
supervision.
Although, there are international & local Donors and NGOs working in WaSH there is no
harmonization and clear information on what is funding and achieving. Besides, no proper
coordination by government sectors in bringing concrete results. Therefore, there is a need for
government sector offices (Water, Health and Education) to take the lead in order to ensure
meaningful support by all partners. Except the big donors (WB/DFID, AfDB and UNICEF),
others are not clear even their relationships with government partners and how to support
each other.
The R-WaSH program is an integral part of the regional plans & will be managed and
implemented in line with the prevailing mechanisms for management and coordination of
priority regional programs.
The multi-sectoral nature of the program emphasis will be placed in achieving intersectoral
integration. The management structure for the program is fully decentralized to the
implementing woreda administrative & technical structures & communities who will be the
direct partners in the program.
The role of the regional water bureau is overall program planning & coordination.
Responsibilities of the regional water bureau are:-
Provides enabling environment adopts required legislation & establishes institutional
framework.
Sets out overall needs, coordinates resources & agrees on rules of engagement.
Consolidates woreda plans and allocates resources.
Promotes RWSSHP to woredas & to potential financiers.
Ensure monitoring & evaluation adhered to and objectives met.
Arranging /supervising technical assistance to help woreda build their capacity &
RWSSH programs (including WSGs)
Contracting/administering borehole construction.
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Woreda Level
At the woreda level the overall co-ordination function of development efforts is within the
woreda council /administration. The woreda WaSH team is responsible for the implementation
of the program. Capacity will be built within the woreda administrations for planning,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the program.
Woreda Council
Role: - Approves & oversees all development activities in the woreda - including the RWSSHP.
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4.2.3 HUMAN RESOURCE
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4.2.4 OFFICE FACILITIES FOR RPCU
1 Car 3 - 3
2 Motorcycle - - -
3 Desktop Computer 6 - 6
4 Laptop computer 6 - 6
5 Printer 5 - 5
6 Photocopier 1 - 1
7 Shelf 15 - 15
According to the regional five years GTP bulletin, the regional water resource sector has
planned to construct 7152 new water resources schemes and rehabilitation of the existing &
maintenance of 947 schemes. Besides, the bureau has also planned to minimize the rate of the
non functional schemes from 18% to 7%. Hence, the regional water sector has planned to
reach 100% for rural & urban water supply coverage at the end of the 2007 EFY.
Although the Regional Technical Committee has not prepared Regional WaSH plan for 2003-
2007 EFY in a coordinated manner, the Regional Program Coordination Unit has prepared the
strategic plan which is not endorsed by the Regional Steering Committee and submitted to the
National Program Management Unit.
There are many stakeholders working in WaSH program in the region. The main
donors/organizations active in WASH program are Government, WB (IDA), AfDB, UNICEF,
REST, USAID & various NGOs. The number of woredas supported by WB, AfDB & UNICEF is 18,
9 & 8 respectively. The support being provided by these donors/organizations are budget
subsidy, community mobilization, capacity building, stakeholders training, provision of
transport facilities and material resources.
The guiding principles of the water policy focus on decentralized service delivery, participation
and community management. Promotion of the participation and community management of
all stakeholders and user communities, particularly women’s participation in the relevant
aspects of water resources management is essential. All user communities contribute 5% of
capital cost for all water supply schemes.
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All stakeholders to WasH have obligation to comply with government’s plans, policies and laws
intended to respect, protect and fulfil the human right to water. In recognition of the multi-
sectoral nature of WaSH and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between
MoWR, MoH and MoE at national level to facilitate their cooperation in joint planning,
implementation, and monitoring of water supply, sanitation and hygiene education in
communities. The MOU sets out broad institutional responsibilities for ministries, bureaus and
woredas to work on their sector mandate & more importantly coordinate across their sectors.
We have observed that WaSH stakeholders working in the Region do not have a common
working and supporting modalities. This shows that the steering committee is not effective and
active. The Region faced problems to coordinate WaSH program in a vertical and horizontal
dimensions. Problems raised on higher level action include delays in fund flow and less budget
support for sanitation and hygiene. There is weak support to carry out sanitation and hygiene
activities. Absence of effective coordination, poor supervision and coordination capacity and
inconsistent norms and modalities are problems among the actors at the regional level.
Transparency and accountability is vital for just and equitable delivery of services by public
institutions. It refers to government’s response to voice which is ensured through systems of
transparency in decision making, identifying ‘answerability’ and exposure to sanctions. It is a
tool to ensure service delivery to citizens, promotion of democratic culture and strengthening
states. Dissemination of information about user communities and project details have
undertaken through community meetings, procurement through WaSHCO and WaSHCO
auditing of the completed projects.
Gender has been considered in program planning and implementation in the different stages of
the project cycle. It is practiced to invite and ensure participation of women in community
meetings for planning. It is compulsory to make 50% WaSHCO members to be women.
From the table below it can be understood that from 2001-2003 EFY, the capital budget
allocated for water sector from the total capital budget of the region was 20%. In some years
the utilized budget for WB and UNICEF was higher than the allocated due to balance brought
forward.
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5.1 GOVERNMENT BUDGET ALLOCATED TO REGION FOR THE PAST THREE
YEARS
5.2 GOVERNMENT BUDGET ALLOCATED AND UTILIZED FOR WASH FOR THE
PAST THREE YEARS
5.3 WORLD BANK BUDGET ALLOCATED AND UTILIZED FOR WASH FOR THE
PAST THREE YEARS
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5.4 ADB BUDGET ALLOCATED AND UTILIZED FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS
5.5 UNICEF FUND ALLOCATED AND UTILIZED FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS
Monitoring and evaluation system in the Region is poor. The Regional Water Bureau produces
consolidated report for the water sector only which does not incorporate reports on sanitation
and school WASH progress reports from health and education bureaus.
7.1 PROBLEMS/CHALLENGES
Regional WaSH sector staffs are not clear on WaSH policies & strategies
Regional Program Coordinating Unit rarely visited woredas & were out of touch with
problems & questions at the woreda level
High staff turnover
Delay in program budget release & financial settlement
Capacity limitation in program management, procurement & financial management
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Failure to conduct regular meetings of Regional Technical Committee and Regional
Steering Committee
Low participation of regional technical committee members
Low level of coordination and loose links among WaSH stakeholders
7.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
The skills and competencies of staff members should be enhanced through capacity
strengthening measures. The capacity development can be implemented in different
forms as appropriate such as training, orientation, workshop participation, and
experience sharing. Office facilities and transport facilities shall be provided to
accelerate WaSH program implementation.
Sectoral coordination is one of the weak areas in WaSH program. There is poor
communication between line departments in each WaSH sectors. Poor communication
leads to misunderstanding and confusion, and thus poor sector performance. To avoid
such a situation the CMP should extend its support for initiative taken by different
actors in the sector to improve sectoral coordination.
The regional technical committee shall give due attention and make regular meetings to
facilitate the WaSH program implementation.
As there are WaSH supported woredas/tabias in the region by different donors, the CMP
program shall give priority for woredas/tabias where there is no other donor
intervention taking also the other technical criteria in to consideration.
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