Sustainable Water Services for Harar

The Public Private Partnership (PPP) ‘Sustainable Water Services for Harar’ is a partnership between – amongst others – HEINEKEN Breweries S.C., Vitens Evides International B.V., Harar Town Water Supply and Sewerage Service Authority (HWSSA), MS Consultants and Acacia Water B.V. The PPP’s objective is to ensure long-term water availability in the Ethiopian region of Harar where over 300,000 people are facing water shortages. The project focusses on a number of targets, most notably the creation of water access for 50,000 people, of which 25,000 people in rural areas by means of water buffering schemes and other water supply solutions. The project utilizes an integrated approach to address some the region’s urgent water related challenges, such as the increasing pressure on Harar’s main water sources. It will also address the high failure risk of the current drinking water supply and the current water insufficiencies.

In this PPP Acacia Water prepared a regional water resources assessment, including a water demand assessment and climate resilience scenarios. It also worked out different types of water buffering interventions, including an upscaling plan, gave several trainings in sustainable abstraction practices and developed a water point rehabilitation plan to enhance the safe water access of 25,000 rural inhabitants.