Addis Abeba’s City Administration Prioritises Water Supply Coverage

Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)

Mahlet Mesfin

12 July 2011

Out of the total budget approved by the Addis Abeba City Council for the next fiscal year, which is 11.8 billion Br, 61pc (7.28 billion Br) is allocated as Capital Budget. Addis Abeba Water and Sewerage Authority (AAWSA) took the lion’s share at 26pc. The Addis Abeba City Roads Authority (AACRA), Land Development and Housing Projects took 16.4pc, 13.7pc, and 13.2pc, respectively.

Aiming at ensuring complete coverage in water supply for the city of Addis Abeba, from the current 73pc coverage authorities claim there is, councillors of the Addis Abeba City Administration have approved 1.4 billion Br to the sector last week, an amount claiming 25.8pc of the city’s 11.8 billion Br budget for the 2011/12 fiscal year.

Not only is this the largest appropriation in the list of the city’s capital menu of capital expenditures; it is also the first time the city administration proposed to spend more money in improving Addis Abeba’s water supply than the construction of road projects.

The all too EPRDF dominant city council, where there is only one seat claimed by an opposition MP out of the 138 seats, approved the city’s budget for the fiscal year on July 6, 2011. The total budget has seen an increase of 25.3pc from last year’s budget.

A big chunk of the budget, 61pc, goes to finance capital expenditures such as public project works by the city’s Water and Sewerage Authority (AAWSA), Roads Authority (AACRA) and housing development agency; the three top priorities in the budget. Spending in the capital expenditure has seen an increase of 32.4pc from last year, while recurrent budget, 1.5 billion Br (34pc), showed a 27.7pc increment.

“The city’s budget allocation is healthy,” Haile Fisseha, general manager of the city administration, told Fortune. “Most of the budget is allocated for development projects.”

Promotion of micro enterprises, construction of youth centres, expansion in social services in education and health are also among some of the programmes provided with significant levels of funding.

Addis Abeba prides itself on being the diplomatic capital of Africa with the third largest representation after Washington DC and Brussels. Nonetheless, its residents are subjected not only to limited provisions of water, but also frequent interruptions in areas where there are water provisions.

“I haven’t had shower for the past three days,” said a resident. “Simply because we have not had water in our area during these days.”

The city has expanded extensively over the past decade due to more than the foundation of new neighbourhoods where real estate is mushrooming. The massive public projects in the construction of condominium houses put additional pressure both on the provision of water to each unit with demands for pressure to go as high as four-storeys.

The authority has been struggling to satisfy the demand for water in the city with supplies from dams in Gefersa, Legedadi and Dire, as well as water wells in Akaki, which have a combined capacity to discharge 301,000 cubic metres of water a day.

“It is the first time that the city administration allocates such an amount in order to improve water supply,” Haile told Fortune.

There are huge projects the city administration has planned to conduct in the fiscal year, including the installation of 21km water pipelines from Akaki to Lemu. There will also be drilling of 46 water wells, Haile disclosed. This will be in addition to the 81 wells planned to be drilled, which have the capacity to supply 140,000 cubic metres of water a day, and hoped to increase the coverage to 94pc when completed in September 2011, according to Getenete Gesese, head of the Communications Affairs department of the AAWSA.

Micheal Negash, the National WASH Movement coordinator (based in WaterAid- Ethiopia), agrees with the prioritisation in the budget allocation. Since five of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) are related with water and sanitation, the council’s move towards increasing water coverage is encouraging, he said.

“Major causes for communicable diseases, which constitute around 70pc, are due to poor quality of water supplies,” he told Fortune. “Improving this will help the country meet its MDGs.”

The city’s road construction sector was not as lucky this year as it has been for the past five years. Although its managers have placed a request for three billion Birr, the city council has accepted only one third.

It is not because the construction of roads is not a priority for the city, but the administration’s allocations are based on the project cost of each construction, according to Fekade Haile (Eng), general manager of ACCRA.

Of the total budget, two billion Birr, 17.5pc, is allocated to pay for the operations of the 10 districts in the capital. Out of these, Kirkos District with a population of 221,234, claims the largest share of 652.8 million Br; followed by Lideta District with a population of 201,713 and a 359.4 million Br share; and Arada with a population of 211,501 with 460.2 million Br.

The city administration plans to cover part of its expenditures from tax collections; 5.5 billion Br, 7.7pc more than last year, is expected from businesses in the city as profit tax, while 6.2 billion Br is expected in non-taxable incomes. The latter has seen an increase of 56.5pc from the last fiscal year, and is expected to come from municipality services and loans.

The city council has approved the plan to collect from taxes on the assumption that the tax collection will improve as the city’s revenues collection department has merged with the Federal Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) six months ago. ERCA hopes to collect close to 90 billion Br in the coming budget year from direct and indirect taxes sources.

AllAfrica – All the Time