All's Well that Starts Wells

The international news media frequently carries reports of droughts and hunger in Ethiopia, and i t remains difficult particularly for people in agricultural villages even to get safe drinking water. According to United Nations data in 2006, only 42 percent of the population overall and 31 percent of the rural population had access to improved drinking water sources.

The Ethiopian government has set a target of raising water availability in rural areas to 98 percent by 2012, but the regional governments in charge of local water works lack adequate budgetary and human resources to develop drinking water facilities.

At the request of the Ethiopian government, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) began a Groundwater Development and Water Supply Training Project in 1998. The goal of the project is to train regional government officers to work in groundwater development and water supply at the Ethiopian Water Technology Center (EWTEC) that JICA helped establish. When EWTEC was launched, four courses were established, including drilling technology, groundwater investigation, drilling machinery maintenance technology and local social development.

"The major goal of the project is to enable the people of Ethiopia to secure drinking water for themselves through technology transfer," says Suzuki Takashi. "The JICA human resources training project is intended to support independent development by Ethiopians themselves."

Suzuki taught drilling technology at EWTEC as a JICA expert between 1999 and 2005.

In order to learn drilling technology, it is necessary to gain experience in drilling a large number of wells over many year s. The groundwater i n Ethiopia is characterized by bedrock formed in complicated geological formations. Normally, there is little chance that water can be pumped up through bedrock formed so long ago. Drilling for groundwater development in such difficult terrain requires drillers to have advanced technical skills.

But because the training period lasts only three months, Suzuki worked with his Ethiopian counterparts to design and implement an on-the-job training curriculum at EWTEC. As one component of the training, they provided participants opportunities to conduct well drillings at model sites in rural areas. Under Suzuki's one-on-one guidance, participants got hands-on experience in using equipment to drill wells, learning drilling techniques through the acquisition of practical experience.

"There's always danger involved in drilling," says Suzuki. "It's an occupation with so many fatal accidents. That's why I give top priority to safety during training."

During Phases I (1998–2005) and II (2005–2008) of the project, approximately 190 participants completed the well-drilling course with no accidents. If those who received training in other courses are included, the total number of trainees at EWTEC over ten years is almost 2,000. Most returned to their respective home regions and worked in water resources development and in disseminating their skills to others.

During Phase II of EWTEC, training was provided to engineers invited from some fifteen African countries, including Kenya, Ghana and Tanzania. Together with Ethiopian engineers, courses were held in such subjects as groundwater modeling, which is a groundwater management technology, as well as geographic information systems, which are widely applied in the field of groundwater development.

Suzuki left Ethiopia when Phase I of the project ended in 2005 but has again been participating as an expert in Phase III, which began in 2009. Phase III is scheduled to last five years with the goal of turning EWTEC into an organization which Ethiopians will be able to independently and sustainably operate on their own. During this time, many people from regional governments, private companies and NGOs are expected to participate in the training.

Suzuki is now engaged in strengthening the operational aspects of Phase III, fleshing out the EWTEC curriculum, improving technical instruction methods and planning new courses.

"I feel a great sense of satisfaction seeing villagers' faces light up as water comes out of the wells," says Suzuki. "Various benefits come from drilling wells. Sanitation improves, people gather around the water resource, villages function better and people's life improves. These are the reasons why I really love to make wells."