Costs and benefits of

multiple use water services:

a case from Ethiopia

5th WWF, IstanbulMarch 2009

Introduction

• RiPPLE is research program funded DFID. It consorium of ODI. IRC, CDS, HCS, WAE

• ECC-SDCOH is the key development partners in Ethiopia involved in a multiple use water service development among diverse programs.

Background• Interventions were focusing to addressing

single use of water• No adequate consideration to sectoral

integration of water with NR, agriculture, livestock, infrastructure, market etc

• Lack of evidence on the costs and benefit as well as the livelihood impact of the single vs multiple uses

Objective: To provide a better insight in the costs and benefits of going up the water service ladder in the developed water schemes in Ethiopia

Multiple use water services

Multiple use water services

Single use water services

Domestic water services

Irrigation water services

Initial situation No formal

water services

No formal water services

Irrigation path

Irrigation pathWat

er s

uppl

y pa

th

Wat

er s

uppl

y pa

th

Ido JalalaSpring with discharge of 0.4 l/s

70 households

Ifa DabaSpring with discharge of 1.4 l/s

121 households

Cont…Input Output Impact

Costs related to hard- and software

Water services: Water quality,

Water quantity, Reliability,

Accessibility

water useBenefits

Costs taken into account • Capital investment costs in assets (CapIn), from the implemented and from the community• Operating and minor maintenance expenditure (Opex)• Support costs (SupCo)

Not considered:•“Impact costs”

Benefits taken into account • Health benefits• Time saving benefits• Irrigation benefits• (livestock benefits)

Costs

Costs per capita

Results: benefits

Benefits per capita

B/C ratios

Ido Jalala Ifa DabaDomestic water supply services

Multiple use services

Irrigation services

Multiple use services

B/C 25 24 29 36Towards water supply services Towards MUS

Towards irrigation services Towards MUS

Additional B/C 6 8 12 22

Conclusions

• Introducing single use water services can have impact on the multiple uses of water

• Limited water availability at the source means that different water uses might compete with each other

• Integrated water service delivery for multiple uses is key

• Multiple use services seem to be more cost effective than single use systems (in case of spring systems)

• In case of spring systems, the benefits of going from irrigation services to multiple use services, are high compared to the costs

Acknowledgements:

• RiPPLE MUS research team: Zemede Abebe, Marieke Adank, Belayneh Belete, Samuel Chaka, Adissu Delelenge, Martine Jeths, Jaleta Gebru, Zelalem Lema and Demeksa Tamiru.

• Thanks you!