Living by Ethiopia’s sewage canal
July 2nd, 2008 | EthioPolitics.com |BBC
Sanitation in Ethiopia’s capital city leaves a lot to be desired - and it is the poor who are most vulnerable as a result.
In a small shack made of iron sheets and pieces of clothing in the slums of Addis Ababa live the Alemu family - Abiy, Marasit Bishaw, and the couple’s three-year-old son and 25-day-old baby daughter Yanit.
And just a few metres from their one-room home is a mass of sewage and garbage, mixed with the carcasses of dead chickens and cow and goat skulls. The Alemus live near the gully where the Kabena river used to meander gracefully through the Ethiopian capital.
But the river is now full of the city’s waste, and a stench of sewage is the first thing that hits. During the rainy season, the filth and sewage from the skyscrapers up the hill flows freely onto the floor of the house.
A sewer by the entrance jets waste water incessantly, sending a gush of greying liquid down into the river. The situation is typical of many in the slums of Ethiopia’s capital, and highlights a desperate need for clean water.