The Management of Water in the Ihdp Program: How Sustainable is it?
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Date
2016-01
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Addis Ababauniversity
Abstract
The Integrated Housing Development Program (IHDP) is an ongoing mass housing development
for low and middle income dwellers of urban areas in Ethiopia. This study examines the
sustainability of water management in the occupied IHDP neighborhoods in Addis Ababa. The
phenomenon is investigated through the analysis of a case study. The data are primarily
collected through qualitative techniques supplemented by a quantitative technique. This was
done in three parts: first finding out pre-design and design considerations of water
management for Gofa-Mebrathaile condominium site; second investigate the household water
management trend in relation to the design of the condominiums and third is measuring the
level of sustainability of the water management for this neighborhood.
Based on the empirical evidence from the case study and analytical generalization the following
findings are revealed. With the aim to alleviate the living standards of people the housing units
are designed with indoor toilets and kitchens. This is considered to be one of the achievements
of the IHDP; before moving to the condominiums, in the slum areas, people were using shared
kitchens and toilets among a large group of people or do not have it at all. Due to this and the
existence of flush toilets and use of conventional sewerage system the average daily demand is
increased to be 111 l/c/d from the previous 30 l/c/d. From this amount 80% of the water is
calculated to be used by the flush toilets to make the sewerage system work properly. But the
demand and supply of water are not balanced. Due to this the case area is suffering from
shortage of water. People stay on average three to four days without water and this gets even
worse in dry seasons which could go more than eight days. The apartment units (usually small
spaces) and the shared spaces are being occupied by water storage containers as most of the
building are not built with water reservoirs.
Since the toilets and kitchens are found inside the units, there is a big chance of contamination
when the water supply is interrupted, which puts the residents health in a high risk. They
cannot also access external toilets in their surrounding as such options are not considered with
the neighborhood design. The actions taken by different authorities are not integrated in order
to solve the problem. AAWSA is the only responsible body to manage water and to overcome
the problem of water shortage. The actions taken by this organization are traditional and there
are no much considerations for alternative and innovative ways. Even if there are some
considerations to adopt some sustainable water management principles by AAWSA, but since
other decisions are not integrated the overall effect is not very visible.
The sustainable water management performance assessment method done in this research,
shows that water management is partly unsatisfactory in terms of the accepted sustainable water
management principles for developing countries. Finally the study recommends possible
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solutions for the already built condominiums and the coming ones to have a more sustainable
practice in the management of water for housing development
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Keywords
Water in the Ihdp