Nationally, 20% of Ethiopians live on less than $2 a day and 50% do not use safely managed drinking water services. In rural areas, this increases to 95%. Poverty is correlated with poor water, sanitation and hygiene due to its impact on health, school attendance and livelihoods: where there is no access to clean water, and there is poor sanitation and hygiene, poor health and illness prevails. When women and girls spend hours collecting water, time is not spent in school or earning money.

HOPE works in and alongside communities living in poverty who do not have access to clean water, at their invitation, taking a highly relationship approach. HOPE has now worked in this region of Ethiopia for 50 years years and has found that clean water access is a catalyst of great change. We, therefore, work with the community to build a water and sanitation system, capping a nearby spring and channelling clean water to the village, whilst teaching hygiene education and livelihood skills.