This study explores the physical changes in rainfall and landscapes leading to major flood events in the Awash Basin, Ethiopia. Climate Change is creating new flood regimes and reshaping the interaction of flooding with rapidly changing communities, heightening risk to vulnerable communities within the basin. Therefore, this study examines the interaction of physical phenomena with societal and economic dynamics across the basin’s upper, middle and lower reaches. Focusing on the extreme wet season in 2020, the study’s multi-dimensional perspective includes analysis of hydroclimatic variables at the basin level including global drivers, flood characterization in selected catchments, and understanding of affected communities at sub-catchment levels.
Country
GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis model for utility water demand: The case of Lodwar Municipality, Turkana County, Kenya
Water shortage affects every continent and is listed as one of the largest global risks hence the need for proper management of water resources. Municipalities and cities worldwide are struggling to meet increasing demand for water amid rapid urbanization, increasing population growth, industrial development and expansion of human activities. This study used Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to develop a decision support model that can be applied to improve the utility water demand management for the Lodwar Municipality in Turkana Kenya. The results can help water utility managers and decision makers highlight suitable areas for network expansion as well as infrastructure management planning within the municipality.
REACH Story of Change: Redefining the connections between WASH and gender – Measuring women’s empowerment in WASH to support policy and practice
This REACH Story of Change presents the development of the Empowerment in WASH Index (EWI), a novel survey-based tool to measure agency, voice and empowerment in a WASH context. The EWI has been used in six countries to assess and evaluate women’s empowerment, showing its potential to inform policy and practice in the WASH sector by providing more robust evidence on how to integrate gender into intervention design, monitoring and evaluation.
REACH Story of Change: Improving water security in Ethiopia through integrated use of surface and groundwater resources
As one of Africa’s fastest growing cities, Addis Ababa’s demand for water has sky-rocketed over recent decades due to population growth, increased per capita consumption, rural to urban migration, and growing water demand from industry. Water supplies across the city are already struggling to meet demand, with regularly interruptions to water services exacerbating inequities. This Story of Change explores the range of methodologies that REACH has applied to examine the implications of climate and population growth for Addis Ababa’s water supply. Of particular focus is a first-of-its-kind dynamic water allocation model which integrates both surface and groundwater resources.
Resolving the Turkana Jet—Impact of Model Resolution in Simulating Channel Flow and Inversions
The Turkana Jet plays a pivotal role in the meteorology of East Africa and owes its existence to both large-scale dynamics and the representation of intricate local-scale processes. However, much of our understanding of the jet relies on reanalysis, and these along with climate models that produce important projections do not represent these local-scale processes. This study systematically investigates the impact of changing model horizontal and vertical resolution in simulating the Turkana Jet, and associated local and large-scale processes.
Water quality and unseen health outcomes: A cross-sectional study on arsenic contamination, subclinical disease and psychosocial distress in Bangladesh
Health risks from water quality pose a major threat to billions of people globally. Most microbial contaminants have short subclinical periods, compared to chemical contaminants that can take years to manifest, which can translate to less attention in the policy sphere. This paper presents a cross-sectional study of water quality in Bangladesh, assessing both subclinical disease and the psychosocial distress associated with varying water quality issues.
Is volumetric pricing for drinking water an effective revenue strategy in rural Mali?
This paper is based on an analysis of over 4,000 months of handpump revenue data in Mali, exploring the effect on revenue and usage when a water service switches from a volumetric tariff to a monthly flat fee. The switch from volumetric to flat fees led to three times more monthly revenue, although a subsidy gap persists. Flat fees and higher temperatures were linked to higher water usage, offering insights into the role of professional service delivery models to support climate-resilient and reliable drinking water supplies for rural communities.
Ensuring sustainable water security through sustainable land management: Research evidences for policy
Land degradation is adversely affecting over 75% of the Earth’s land surface and could exceed 90% by 2050. Likewise, the rate of soil erosion will increase by 66% during the period 2015–2070. Sustainable land management (SLM) practices are key to reducing rates of land degradation and are proven to ensure water security by increasing soil moisture availability, decreasing surface runoff, decreasing soil erosion, increasing infiltration, and decreasing flood discharge. In Ethiopia, over 85% of the land is moderately to very severely degraded at an estimated cost of $4.6 billion annually. This research highlights the importance of developing an SLM-water security policy to make the most of SLM techniques at a local and national scale.
Tracing contaminants of emerging concern in the Awash River basin, Ethiopia
This study focuses on characterization of Emerging Organic Contaminants (EOCs) in the Awash River basin. Characterization of the EOCs was supplemented by chemical analysis of samples from river, boreholes, tap water, and surface water reservoirs. Analyses of environmental isotopes (δ 2 H, δ 18 O, and 222Rn) were used to investigate the exchange of contaminants between surface and groundwater supply sources. The analysis showed new types of contaminants in the water supply sources with potential impact on human and wider environmental health.
Water for healthcare is for more than drinking – Rethinking the water service indicators for healthcare facilities
Healthcare water systems are a critical but overlooked source of healthcare-associated infections. This poster presented at Singapore International Water Week 2024 details a cross-sectional study to examine the quality of water services in Bangladesh public hospitals as assessed by the JMP WASH in Healthcare Facilities indicator, and the utility of E. coli as an indicator of safe water for healthcare use.
