Searching for clean water supply by the IDP Community in Mekelle (Source: Damage Assessment Report for Water Supply and Sanitation Service System, Mekelle, Tigray; Mekelle Town Water Supply and Sanitation Service Office, January 2022)
This project focuses on a geospatial assessment of water access after conflict in Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia. We examine the pre and post-conflict waterscape with a specific focus on internally displaced people (IDP). IDPs are housed in public schools and religious centers where water access points are limited. Identifying where the water system is damaged will help to prioritize water projects to serve IDPs as well as identify the water supply needs of Mekelle.
Water supply provision is seriously affected due to the conflict and rehabilitation in water sector is seriously hampered. Understanding how the conflict impacts water provision in Mekelle helps to support the rehabilitation efforts through public offices. This can be achieved through proper documentation of the pre and post conflict water supply. The Mekelle City Water Supply and Sanitation Office can use this information to properly allocate water to the host community and the IDP. There are some attempt to document the damage due to the conflict, however such documents shows some bias that need triangulation for proper rehabilitation efforts.
This is a citywide project that includes a partnership with Mekelle University, local government, and IDPs and the organizations that oversee the IDP sites. The university is the lead in updating geospatial data on the water supply system after the conflict and assist the city and community to prioritize water supply needs. A pre and post water supply assessment using geospatial tools will complement the Damage Assessment conducted by Mekelle municipality. Students will engage in data collection using mobile apps and standardized data collection protocols.
Mekelle University was a city partner in the U.S. State Department Secondary Cities project that collected baseline geospatial data for emergency preparedness, human security, and resilience. During the conflict in 2020 an estimate of up to 250,000 people from various parts of Tigray, Ethiopia has displaced to Mekelle. That is a lot burden to the already low performing water supply system in Mekelle. Coupled with the destruction and lack of maintenance during the conflict, the water supply deficit is amplified. How the water supply is performing under these communities during the post-conflict should be properly documented? Though it is difficult to address the whole problems related to water supply in Mekelle, in this project, the target communities are Internally Displaced People (IDP), and communities at informal settlement and out fringes in Mekelle City. Responsible actors in this project includes the Mekelle University, Mekelle City Water and Sanitation Office, and Tigray Bureau of Water Resources and Mines. International and Local NGOs will also be communicated in due process. Hence, rehabilitation efforts are hampered due to lack of sufficient information on existing working and damaged infrastructures. On the top of that, due to the current conflict in Tigray, several people are displaced from various places of Tigray and now sheltered at IDPs, mainly in Mekelle. Though there are limited IDP sites mainly designed for sheltering Internally displaced people, most displaced people are sheltered at Governmentally owned School compounds. These schools lack the basic infrastructure to support IDPS. There are several challenges at IDPs related to Health, Nutrition, Education, GBV, Social and Economic integration, etc. though, the major challenge be Water Supply. The Schools have limited facility in these regard as it was not designed for this purpose. Most challenges of the target community are communicated to the major actors in uncoordinated manner in a form of personal complaints, which in turn can result in the less responses from the respective governmental and non-governmental actors. We believe that during the post-conflict crises, besides the limited capacity of local actors to respond efficiently and effectively, lack of capacity, skill and knowledge of the target community regarding the communication of their challenges can result a continuation of existing challenges in water scarcity and sanitation. Efficient and effective response to address the challenges of the target community in Mekelle requires a proper documentation and coordinated communication of these challenges to policy makers and donors. Supporting the community through scientific problem solving approaches is more important and in that regard lessons learnt from Community sciences-based initiatives are crucial. In that regard working with Thriving Earth Exchange can be an excellent opportunity to address the challenges and provide scientific solutions to the target community in Mekelle.
The university partner will develop an open data approach to enhance availability of water data and develop geospatial tools for water planning. The partners involved in this project include local government technicians and students to engage in water data collection (i.e., water supply points, damaged wells, springs).
The focus of the water data assessment is twofold: 1) assessment of water supply for IDP locations (schools and religious centers); 2) pre-post conflict assessment of water supply system for Mekelle to complement the city’s Damage Assessment Report.
Deliverables include an updated water system geospatial database, a data dictionary of water resources/water provisioning systems for Mekelle, an analysis of water availability for Mekelle residents with an emphasis on IDPs; and geospatial training for water planning.
The outcomes of this project will improve understanding and the unique needs of the water supply in Mekelle post-conflict. This approach provides a template for other impacted regions around the world experiencing conflict and damaged critical basic resource systems.
The major activities planned in this project includes:
Major actors in this community-based project includes:
This project is expected to deliver the following outputs:
When completed the community will be benefited in terms of:
Such outcomes can help the community get proper attentions to solve the water scarcity and sanitation problems in the target community.
Briefly describe any key dates or milestones (if applicable), and the intended duration of the project. Thriving Earth Exchange’s baseline is approximately 12 months. (6-18 months)
Months 1: Development of data collection standards; Training of student volunteers and local government on data collection tools
Month 2: Data collection of water system; collection of existing water supply data
Month 3: Discussions with IDPs regarding access to and availability of water
Month 4: Development of geospatial database: creation of data dictionary of water supply data; comparison of pre/post conflict waterscape
Month 5: Analysis of IDP access to water
Month 6: Review and finalize deliverables: training materials, geospatial database and data dictionary; prepare scholarly paper for publication.
Danial Teka, Mekelle University, Project Lead
Abrha Haile, Tigray Bureau of Water Resources and Mines, Team Member
Ms. Simret Alemayehu, (1) Inquiry of Tigray Genocide Office, (2) Mekelle University, Team Member
Assefa Weldu, Mekelle Water Supply and Sanitation Office, Team Member
Melinda Laituri, Thriving Earth Science Fellow
Mekelle University will oversee student volunteers to assist in data collection.
As indicated under Section 2 and 3, this project will engage quite a wide range of actors to collect, analyze, and document the challenges in the target community. Students at Mekelle University will engage in the collection of data, staffs at the partner institutions will engage in the reconnaissance survey at the target host community and at the IDPs. The target community will engage in a frequent Focus Group Discussions to address their challenges and provide doable solutions. Situational assessments and scientific solutions need to be provided through engaging local scientists and others from the AGU. However, considering the limited resources that the project will have, at least remote engagement of the scientist is required.
Desired Skills and Qualifications (bulleted list):
Thriving Earth Exchange asks all scientific partners to work with the community to help define a project with concrete local impact to which they can contribute as pro-bono volunteers and collaborators. This work can also position the scientists and communities to seek additional funding, together, for the next stage.
Meklle University, Colorado State University, Mekelle City Water and Sanitation Office, Tigray Bureau of Water Resources and Mines. International and Local NGOs will be a partner organization to this project.
