March 13, 2006
Project Description
The project that EBA is providing technical and financial support to on behalf of Partners is the protection of springs (seepage areas) that are used for water supply. Currently, these sites are used concurrently by people for drinking/washing water and by livestock resulting in potential cross-contamination and disease. The dry season lasts from November to May and offers the best opportunity to evaluate permanent springs. The specific spring development projects involve the construction of concrete water containment cribs (approx. 2 m x 3 m) [see picture] that collect spring water from natural seeps and direct outflows to a tap either at the spring point or further down gradient via a pipe to an accessible open area off the floodplain. Brian Adeney and the project team inspected ten potential sites and viewed two others currently under construction. We expect to be able to complete five spring protection sites this year with priority to those serving the most people and having reasonable access. . Each day, people, many of them children, collect the water from these springs in old gasoline containers and carry it up 200 m or more to the villages. Those better off have camels or donkeys to carry the water containers.
Design Stage
The information gathered by Brian Adeney and the Ethiopian engineer, Tesfaye and the rest of the team is now being used to design the most appropriate measures to protect the springs in the 5 villages from further contamination. Tesfaye is a very good resource and EBA and Partners are very pleased that he is available to work with us on this project. The proposed measures to protect the quality of the water in the springs are three-fold. First we need to protect the source of the springs from contamination. Second we need to tap the water source with piping and third we need to build concrete water containment cribs to collect and store the water.
The preliminary designs for 5 villages have been completed by Tesfaye and have been sent to Brian Adeney. The design work will be reviewed by Brian Adeney and by other employees that Brian has enlisted to help review the design, they include Lillian Zaremba and other Hayco staff in the Vancouver office.
We expect that the design work will be completed within the next week and that construction will begin immediately afterwards. Construction materials are currently being mobilized to the 5 spring sites including digging tools, rocks, sand, cement and piping. "Mobilized" is definitely too technical a word when you consider that all these materials will at some point be carried on someone's back.
Construction Stage
There is some urgency to get going with construction because the rainy season begins in May. The Partners organization will coordinate the construction activity with local resources. Tesfaye will help with local support as well. EBA's role during construction will be to send someone over to review the construction work and to offer support and advice during construction. We anticipate that another EBA employee will go to Ethiopia in April or May. He or she will visit most of the villages where the construction work will be underway. With luck, one of the projects will have been completed and our employee will get to be involved in the opening ceremony in the village. These are typically major village celebrations with lots of tella and irecki (see update No. 2). So now we need to determine who next is going to Ethiopia. The primary technical qualifications for the individual will be having some construction related experience. Also, we thought that we needed a senior employee to go on the first trip because we were not quite sure what to expect but for the second employee to go we think it should be a more junior employee. We think that this would be a wonderful opportunity for someone just getting started in their career to gain this incredible experience. So if you are interested in participating in the project by going to Ethiopia for about 10 to 14 days in April or May you should send an email to Terry Hillaby by March 17 . The email should briefly present your qualifications but most importantly indicate why you want to go. Please keep in mind that this trip will involve very tough living conditions. You will need to be in very good health. When the successful employee is chosen we will have him or her spend time with Brian to fully understand the risks and living conditions relative to a trip such as this.
Where We Go From Here
EBA's involvement in sending staff to Ethiopia will be less than what we had originally expected mainly because Tesfaye is available to the project. This is very positive in the sense that more of EBA's financial contribution will go to protecting and developing the springs. The downside of course is that we know many EBA employees wanted to be involved intimately in the project by traveling to Ethiopia. We should all feel good that more of our resources are going to directly helping the people in the Ethiopia villages. EBA has made a financial commitment to this project of $50,000. So far we have given $30,000 of that amount to Partners and 100% of that money will go to pay for the construction work. The construction work for the 5 springs is estimated to be about $30,000 so we will have given Partners enough money to deliver these projects to the people of Ethiopia. We should all feel good about that. We will know if there is need for more EBA employees to go to Ethiopia later this spring.
We will be receiving information and photographs from Partners people in Ethiopia throughout the construction phase and they will take lots of photographs of the villagers response to the completed projects. We will share this information with you as we receive it. We hope that many of you have become better acquainted with the work that we are doing in Ethiopia through the lunch-time presentations that Brian Adeney has given in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Lethbridge (via web conference). Brian will continue to give these presentations during the year when he is in other offices.
We still plan that Brian and the other employees that go to Ethiopia will put together a presentation on Ethiopia and the project that they will share with all employees in all offices at the end of the project. Also, we will develop a poster board for the project and copies will be sent to all offices for display.
