Princeton's Africa Development Initiative Otherwise known as PADI

Jorit Water Project

Jorit Water Project Report

Ethiopia

Princeton University

Fatu S. Conteh, Sierra Leone

Hassen M. Yesuf, Ethiopia, Red Cross Nordic United World Colleges (RCNUWC)

Earlier this summer, with the Davis Peace Project Grant, we traveled to Jorit, Ethiopia to install clean water systems that will satisfy the basic water needs of this semi-desert village. Our initial project included two main undertakings; first, we had hoped to revamp almost unused and inefficient spring, and second, to construct a new hand-dug well in the village.

However, as Leonardo Dicaprio said in the movie Blood Diamond, TiA, This is Africa, where projects usually do not go as planned. A series of unfortunate events forced us to abandon our initial plans and opt for what we believe to be an equally good plan.

First, Hassen’s bag pack with laptop, camera, and passports inside got stolen at a hotel in Addis Abba, putting our entire plan one week behind. Hassen had to stay in Addis for a week to get a new passport and visas to US and South Africa. Though initially apprehensive and unaccustomed to the country and the culture, Fatu had to go ahead without him to Kemissie, Ethiopia, his hometown, to get things started with his father, Mr. Yesuf, and his brother. She summed up her courage and boarded the bus on a seven hour ride up and through the beautiful mountains and highlands of Northeastern Ethiopia. By the time she arrived in Kemissie, the other passengers had worn away all her language and cultural anxieties with their attempts to get her to speak Amharic and their friendly questions about her, Princeton, and America.

The day after she arrived at Kemissie, she and Mr. Yesuf paid a visit to the Bureau of Water Management in Kemissie, to Mr. Nur-Hussien, the officer in charge of water resource management in Oromia Zone (Ethiopia is divided into Regions, which are further divided into zones; Jorit is a village in Oromia Zone). To their joy, Mr. Nur-Hussien informed Fatu and Mr. Yesuf that his office would like to pool resources and funds with our grant money to construct a machine dug deep-well for the several villages in the zone. As he convinced them, given the dire lack of water in the zone, a hand-dug well will provide sufficient water for just Jorit, but it will be best to dig one deep machine dug well that will be a sustainable water source not just for Jorit but for all the nearby villages.

Of course, excited at the opportunity to expand the reach and benefits of our project, we (Fatu and Hassen) agreed to work with Bureau of Water Management and wait for another week for the office to conduct a bid for contractors. Again, TiA, the promised one week bidding period turned into two weeks and unfortunately, after three weeks of bidding for contractors and countless meetings and anticlimaxes, the Bureau was unsuccessful in securing a reasonable contractor- the price that the contractors presented was so exorbitantly high that the Bureau was afraid of being accused of colluding with the contractors or being charged with corruption. So we decided to move on with our initial plans. However, with the Davis Peace Project grant and the additional grant we secured from the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), we hired a local contractor who had experience with the Bureau to dig five hand-dug wells instead of the initial one well and spring. Three wells will be dug in and around Jorit, and two in the surrounding community. We abandoned the plan for spring development because our weeklong negotiation with the farmer who owns the land near spring failed. One of the farmer’s concerns was that the construction for the spring development would destroy his crops.

By July 4, almost four weeks after we arrived in Ethiopia, two of the five wells have already been started. In fact, the diggers -which include most of the men in Jorit- strucked water in one of the wells in the first week of digging. Unfortunately, the diggers had to abandon one hole after digging several meters and could not find water. Thus, the digging for the second well had to be made at an alternative site.

For the third well, in order to save to labor and resource spent on the abandoned hole, the villagers suggested that they would clean an open well that they filled with big stones long time ago lest children fall in (it is in a location very accessible to children) if we could renew this well and install a hand pump after they clean it. It was a good idea to do what they suggested because it costs less than digging a new well and installing a hand pump to the open well averts fears they originally had. The cleaning started soon after we left Ethiopia in mid July.

When we set out for Ethiopia, we had not hoped to encounter any difficulties. We thought everything will go as planned and we will be done and will be out of Ethiopia in Five weeks; we are both seniors and had to return to our individual senior thesis research, Hassen’s in South Africa and mine back in Princeton. So due to the setbacks and time wasted, we had no option but to leave Jorit and put Hassen’s father in charge of overseeing the completion of the wells. We had no trouble doing this given the fact that Mr. Yesuf has been the most useful person in this project from the beginning. He was the one who worked with the Bureau to outline our project and sent us the necessary documents when we were in the U.S, he was our liaison between us and the residents of Jorit, and most importantly, he was Fatu’s translator and counselor during her meetings with the Bureau; we cannot emphasize more how important he is to us and the project. Before we left, the contractor promised us that three of the wells will be completed by the end of July, and all the five by the end of August. Also, we left in place a way the progress of the project will be monitored once we are gone.

As of today, August 26, 2009, we are please to inform you that three of the five wells have been completed, including inserting the concrete rings and installing the hand pumps on each. They will start digging the other two wells soon. It is the rainy season that delayed the progress of the two wells, which we are expecting to be completed sometime mid September. Even though our initial goal was to dig one well, and develop a spring, the circumstances on site forced us to take this alternate route which we believe will solve the problem of water scarcity in not only Jorit, but in the neighboring villages.

The correlation between poverty and violence is self-evident. Building global peace requires alleviation of poverty in hamlets in poor countries, and ghettos in developed ones by empowering the poor to get rid of their suffering and shame, and by preaching to the rich the excellence of kindness and love toward others. Needless to say, water scarcity is a global problem. Tackling this problem is the first step toward eradication of poverty and the prevalence of world peace; the lack of water not only introduces conflicts in the home and community, it also undermines global prosperity and peace. We believe that our project puts our beneficiaries one step ahead in their struggle to fight poverty.

Over the course of this entire project, I’ve have come to understand the burden water scarcity puts on communities, families, and, sadly, women and young girls. Water scarcity is a gender problem in Ethiopia and Africa in general. This was confirmed by the group of women and girls I found gathered around the well, with no men or boys in sight. In addition, during my stay in Kemissie, I came to appreciate the clean water that I usually take for granted back in the U.S. Most of all, I came to develop a deep respect for women and girls in developing countries. I saw how these women work from sun up to sun down with scarce or unreliable resources to prepare meals for their families. Therefore, I am confident that these hand dug wells will decrease if not eliminate gender related problems in Jorit and surrounding community. On one of our visits to Jorit, the residents gather to welcome me and say ‘galatoma’ (thank you) for our project and the burden it has taken away from them ( Fatu Conteh).

Where there is a will, there will be a way.

For your will, and the thirsts you allay,

‘God bless you’ in unison we pray,

And “Thank you Kathryn” truly we say,

For giving our girls hope,

And letting our children live,

Much more beyond five.

This project has taught me that helping people in developing countries needs not only good heart and but to also the patience to overlook and tolerate the retarding forces and bureaucracies of bad governance. It also helped me see better how I interact and work together with my family, friends and community. More importantly, I could now understand how projects like ours could bring about peace by eradicating abject poverty (Hassen Yesuf ).

We have received a total of $20,000 from Davis project for Peace and Princeton Environmental institute. The total amount of money we took to Ethiopia, after taxes, airfare and foreign exchange fee, is 14,944.437 USD.