Water supply systems in selected urban poor areas of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Water supply systems in three urban poor areas of Addis Ababa namely Teklehaimanot, Merkato and Biheretsige were evaluated based on a field survey of 105 randomly selected households and interviews with other major stakeholders. Private taps, yard taps, public taps, water kiosks and water vendors are the primary sources of water in these areas. The average water consumption of more than 75% of the sampled households was less than 20 litres per person per day. Most of the households pay a relatively high price for drinking water with the average cost of ETB 6.2/m3 (US$ 0.74/m3). Although many households are willing to have private or yard taps, they can not afford the one time connection fee payment of about ETB 412. An innovative financing and cost recovery mechanism is required, specifically for the initial connection fees, in order to increase the coverage of safe water supply at an affordable price in these areas to meet the Millennium Development Goals