East AfriCare Water Wells

Water is essential to the sustaining of all life on our planet. The essentiality of water leads to the use of hazardous-to-health sources of water in rural areas throughout the world. Meeting the immediate day to day needs for life sustaining water yields increased risks to those who do not have safe, hygienic sources of water for daily life sustenance.

East AfriCare’s support of water well drilling efforts in Ethiopia plays a significant role in providing greater access to clean, safe water in Ethiopia. As of 2020, the population percentage of Ethiopia with access to clean water was only 12.58% (Ethiopia Clean Water Access 2000-2023 | MacroTrends).

Yes, there have been very gradual increases in access over the past few decades but there is a long way to go. The efforts of others in providing a comprehensive approach toward addressing these issues is appreciated. Organizations that support WASH (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene) principles like IRC: Change makers) provide needed support and direction for such efforts. The machine drilling efforts being expanded by East AfriCare through the addition of a new drilling rig in the Sidamo region and surrounding areas will help increase the pace of increased access for rural Ethiopians.

The 700+ wells drilled over the past two decades have all been machine drilled with the installation of hand pumps. Most of these have been India Mark II (Implementation • Handpump Technology - Rural Water Supply Network) pumps. At present, accurate data regarding the number of wells still in service is not available. Such issues are important. Well maintenance and remediation efforts have been ongoing in conjunction with local, district and regional governments and are equally important beyond the drilling of new wells. But the limited financial resources available to those involved in well maintenance sometimes negatively affects maintenance efforts. Funding of East AfriCare’s efforts can help with these and other needs involved in the overall well drilling and maintenance efforts.

Hand pumps are generally limited to 50 meters deep wells though the India Mark II series does have an “Extra Deep Well Pump” series available. It is more costly to drill, install and maintain as would be expected. Data on that pump series is available at Implementation • Handpump Technology - Rural Water Supply Network.

Particularly difficult areas where handpump technology is not adequate to provide fresh, clean water are not currently serviced by drilling or installation of electric or solar pumps. Funding such drilling and installation efforts is not anticipated any time soon based on current funding sources though the new drilling rig is able to drill to depths of several hundred meters. Should such funding become available, efforts might be made to enter these more challenging locations.