Water

The water sector touches nearly every aspect of development. It drives economic growth, supports a healthy ecosystem and is critical to human capital by improving the health status and increasing life expectancy. The Foundation works to improve access to safe, adequate and affordable drinking water as well as improved sanitation facilities. Ultimately, the Foundation aims to create reliable water sources for improved livelihoods.

Ethiopia’s water supply has improved over the last two decades by 57% (97% in urban areas and 42% in rural areas). However, access to safe water remains a major concern in the country. In Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz regional state, The Pharo Foundation rehabilitated 11 shallow and 5 deep wells. This enabled the generation of over 200,000 litres of clean drinking water for households within the various communities. Pharo also engineered the digging of a pipeline bringing additional water to Asossa from nearly 11 kms away to approximately 11,000 people.

Somaliland suffers from constant droughts and floods, causing significant damage to humans, livestock and harvests. In Somaliland, Pharo has rehabilitated two earth dams which are vital for more than 3,000 people and their livestock water needs, especially in light of recent erratic rain patterns. The Foundation has also embarked on a large-scale water infrastructure project involving the building, and rehabilitation of reservoirs, berkeds. In addition, we have built a large dam at Illinta, which has already received 66,651 visitors between December and February, most of whom access the dam multiple times per week. Only 62.8% of visitors are from Illinta village, so that the furthest distance travelled to the dam for water is 85km. At its peak, it contained 10,079 cubic metres of water in August