Reducing the cost of groundwater drilling in Ethiopia

In sub-Saharan Africa, 290 million people lack access to safe water supplies. One reason is the high cost of drilling and borehole construction. Even small savings could extend coverage to millions of people. How can Ethiopia and other African countries reduce drilling costs?

Research from the Water andSanitation Program, based in Kenya, and the Rural Water Supply Network Secretariat in Switzerland, examines groundwater drilling costs in Ethiopia and sets out some ways they could be reduced.

The main reasons for highdrilling costs in Ethiopia include:

• inappropriateborehole designs raise costs, for example, drilling deeper than necessary
• tenders fordrilling works are often not cost-effective – they may involve very fewboreholes and long distances between sites
• lack of knowledgeand information about the country’s groundwater resources
• lack of trainingin important areas, including drilling, groundwater investigation andconstruction supervision
• boreholes whichdo not work, for example due to poor construction or inaccurate assessment ofgroundwater resources
• the costs of ‘doing business’ discourages private sectorparticipation. There are several barriers to private sector participation, suchas import restrictions and the need to obtain a government licence to operateas a drilling contractor.

To meet the MillenniumDevelopment Target 10, Ethiopia will need to provide 28 million more people withaccess to safe water, and will need an estimated 80,000 new boreholes by 2015.A cost saving of ten percent per borehole could result in reaching an extra twomillion people for the same investment.

Groundwater drilling costs inIndia are typically less than one tenth those in sub-SaharanAfrica. Since the late 1970s, India has reduced the number of people without access to asafe water supply from 450 million to 140 million. Several importantdifferences make comparisons between the Indian and Ethiopian cases difficult.For instance, Ethiopia has an underdeveloped manufacturing sector andchallenging drilling conditions. However, the key success factors of India’swater programme included: government commitment, continuous investment fromexternal support agencies, private sector involvement, and strong technical andmanagement skills.

Changes to the drillingsector in Ethiopia will require committed involvement and participationof the public and private sectors, civil society and donors:

• The privatesector should be supported through measures such as easing import procedures,assuring steady, sufficient work flow and training.
• The public sectorneeds to be technically competent, and fair and efficient in the way tendersand contracts are put together and managed.
• Sustainableoperation and management of boreholes is essential. Key issues includefinancing and community participation.
• Multi-stakeholderworking groups should be set up to address problems in the drilling sector.These need to include the public sector, contractors, donors, manufacturers andsuppliers, and non-governmental organisations.