IWRA Proceedings

AbstractWater, Health and Poverty in Gondar City, Ethiopia Dr. Nawal Prasad. Singh Email:nawalpsingh@yahoo.com/singhnp@2- mail.com Department of Geography and Environmental Studies Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities University of Gondar Gondar, Ethiopia Abstract Water, Health and Poverty in Gondar City Key words: Affordability, Accessibility, Availabilities, Health and Culture Environmental problems are experienced in Gondar city today than any time before. Such an environmental problem is explained by water, air, land etc problems of which water problem is the one and much more serious than the other kinds of problems. Gondar is the third largest city of the country and the first leading populous city of the region. According to the data obtained form the municipality of the city, the current population is 201958 (100864 male and 101094 female). The main aim and objectives of this work is to come across the issue of water in Gondar town and specifically to examine the affordability of water to get connected, the customers’ ability to pay for the government or private water supplies, accessibility of the lines to customers to get connected, availability of water even after connection, and the seasonal effect on water availability. To realize the above objectives both primary and secondary data have been employed from questionnaires administered and documents from pertinent sectors to the issues. As the results of the research, water is supplied to private and government customers through 8802 connections including commercial users. Among these, there are 22 public tap points constructed thorough out the city. Average household size of Gondar city is 6.2 persons. Only 27.02 percent of total populations (54572 persons) have access of supply water facilities. The rest of the population uses public taps, private water vendors and river water. People of Kabele five get lowest 6.5 liter and highest in kabele eighteen 18.46 liters water per person per day. These consumptions have included bathing, cleaning and household use. People life is highly unhygienic as well people suffers serious health problem due to water problem. Gondar city have relation with water, poverty and health. There is affordability issue; many households do not have the financial capacity to have their own private taps, because the minimum charge for installation of water tap is USD-80 which is beyond capacity of poor people. The water scarcity seriously prevails in Gondar city.