EWB Technion

Background

EWB Ethiopia group was established in 2012, when Yossi and Sheila Shalhevet from "Save a Child's Heart" visited the village Meskele Kristos in Northern Ethiopia, and was exposed to the lack of water in the village's school. They returned to Israel and contacted EWB Technion to partner with the village.

A team from the group first visited Meskele Kristos in May 2013. They documented the lack of water in general, and at the school in particular. At the end of the visit they decided together with the community to look for a water supply solution for the school.

In the past two years, the group has worked in two paths:

Working with the community to assess the needs, and through participatory work the group together with the community and SYHLA (a local NGO) planned the first project- a roof water harvesting system for the village's school.

The work included community workshops, education activities for the school students, family surveys and training activities for the project's leading team.

The system was successfully built this May, and we are all waiting for the rainy season to begin!

EWB's principle of using simple and sustainable technologies, and utilizing locally available materials, led the group to research a construction method from Compressed Earth Blocks (CEB). The group built a prototype water storage system by this method, and is now analyzing the system and the method to check it's compatibility to the village.

Current Activity

The group is now working on the assimilation of the water system in the village. The work includes educational modules, training activities and water quality testing to insure successful use of the system.

In addition, the group is planning the next stage of the participatory appraisal in order to decide together with all partners what will be the next step of the partnership.

The CEB research is still in progress and according to the results the group will decide on ways to integrate it into the different projects.