Ethiopia

Ethiopia is the 12th largest country in the world by population and the 2nd largest in Africa. Despite significant water scarcity, the capital city of Addis Ababa is growing at 4-5% per year. The vast majority of residents face water shortages, rolling blackouts, and strained services. In our initial baseline survey, water at only 19% of schools tested positive for total coliform, yet only 6% of schools had consistent access to water throughout the week. Access to soap, handwashing facilities, and adequate toilets was extremely limited.

What are we doing?

Splash partnered with the Addis Ababa municipal government, which committed $8 million to the Project in Ethiopian Birr terms. In 2021, following the decision to responsibly exit Kolkata, Splash accelerated its plans to expand to a second city in Ethiopia. We selected Bahir Dar based on its relatively large population, high need, and commitment to invest $3.1M in the project.

With almost 10 percent of Africa’s population, Ethiopia’s successes in health and development will have a significant impact on the future of the continent. Ethiopia also has the second-largest youth population in Africa with 58 million people under age 18.

While there are strong national mandates to improve WASH in schools, cities have insufficient funding for the up-front capital expenditure required to improve WASH infrastructure. They have also lacked an affordable and effective model that can be implemented at scale – until now.

At the end of 2024, Splash reached 100% of our Project WISE, Phase I target schools—537 schools serving 650,000 students in Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar.

What have we learned?

Having refined the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of our intervention model, we are in a strong position to expand our impact.

Building on Splash's success in Ethiopia, we identified three new countries launch our work in the East African region due to their high need, strong support for school WASH, and government willingness to co-invest. These countries provide the opportunity to refine our model across diverse contexts towards the creation of national roadmaps for school WASH.

Impact

Learn more about Splash's impact here.

Partnership

"To achieve the goal we set for Education, students need to get the provision of clean water, health and hygiene education and service. Since Splash’s activities are bringing effective results towards these goals, its action should be strengthened and continuous."

Mr. Amlaku Tebeje

Addis Ababa City Education Bureau