Assessment of Water Supply Service Provision Limitations and Its Effects in Case of Masha Town, SNNPR, Ethiopia
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Date
2019-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study focused on the assessment of water supply service provision limitations and its effects
in Masha town of south western Ethiopia. In the town, piped water service unavailability and
quality was common issues to water users. On the other hand, topography of Masha town is
undulating and equity in water service was under question. The study mainly aimed to assess the
existing situation of the service, water sources for domestic activities, perception for the lowquality
piped water and evaluating the service based on key physiochemical parameters and
pressure. Existing water service were assessed based on site visits checklists, questionnaires and
interviews of service providers. Out of total 4586 households in the town sample size of 100
were selected using standard procedures. Water quality sample was tested at different locations
in water supply system from source to point of supply using photometer, pocket colorimeter and
PH meter apparatuses. Pressure of water service in the town were modeled using Water GEMs
which was calibrated by actual measured pressure data. The study indicates that existing
estimated demand of water for the town was 1477.31 m
/day and designed capacity of existing
water supply system was 803.52 m
3
/day (54.39 % of current demand). Existing water production
amount was 33% of total production capacity and only 15.56% of total capacity were pumped to
central reservoir. The cause for limited service capacity were found to be inefficient institutiona l
capacity of service providers that leads to inappropriate operation and maintenance. The
socioeconomic analysis result depicted that all of households were dissatisfied with piped water
service and its primary common cause were service unavailability (66 %) and degraded water
quality (33%). Water quality test result of the town showed that average concentration of Fe, Mn,
PH and Free Cl2 were 1.430 mg/l, 0.005mg/l, 7.48 and zero respectively. Iron (Fe) was found far
high above recommended value of 0.3 mg/l that makes the piped water to be in a very high-risk
category. As the model result showed that pipe water pressure was very low in some areas of the
town like center of the town where high vertical development was undergoing. Therefore, water
supply service of the town has limitations on water quality, availability and equity in the town
due to inefficiency of treatment plant and institutional capacity of service providers. The service
states has high risk for piped water users and needs water safety planning, household water level
treatment practice, upgrading treatment plants and zonal supply for low pressure areas.
Description
Keywords
Water Quality, Masha Town, Water GEMS, Pressure Zone, Piped Water, Photometer