The water and sanitation crisis in Ethiopia and other countries must be addressed. Globally, less than 1 person in 3 actually has access to a toilet.
This is hardest on females. In many countries, women must wait until nightfall to relieve themselves and girls attending schools without toilets must drop out after reaching puberty because they have no privacy.
About half of all girls worldwide attend schools without toilets. The lack of privacy causes many girls to drop out when they reach puberty. Without an education, they are not able to earn an income. Anyone can see that poor sanitation and hygiene only contributes to keeping the people destitute.
The Beginning of Sanitation Solutions
About half of all girls worldwide attend schools without toilets.
One of the solutions is to build infrastructure designed to extract water from subsoil, thereby making it easily accessible to Ethiopians. The problem is insufficient material, human, and financial resources. Still, the government continues to work on developing an ambitious program that promotes 100 percent water accessibility. However, there is a huge difference between the demands and needs of Ethiopians and the ability of the government to support these needs.
The good news is that several sectors are helping the government realize the goals of its hygiene and sanitation programs. The government aims to promote a decentralized decision-making process and the participation of stakeholders, while also raising cost-recovery levels and incorporating hygiene promotion activities, sanitation, and water supply.
Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health is taking charge of all policies linked to hygiene and sanitation promotion. In fact, it has started to adopt the Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion Strategy, which aims to re-focus the resources of the government in promoting low-cost practices designed to meet the needs of the poor.