Ministry of Water & Energy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

Updated - Friday 05 April 2013

The Ministry of Water and Energy (MoWE) of Ethiopia is a federal organisation established to undertake the management of water and energy resources of Ethiopia. This involves development, planning, and management of water and energy resources, development of polices, strategies and programs, develop and implement water and energy sector laws and regulations, conduct study and research activities, provide technical support to regional water and energy bureaus and offices and sign international agreements.

The inclusion of the right to water and sanitation in the national constitution signifies the political commitment of the government of Ethiopia to achieve the full coverage of both drinking water and sanitation. Following the constitution different sector policies also address water, sanitation and hygiene issues in their perspectives. The National Water Resource Management Policy (1999) laid out a framework to implement community based water supply, sanitation and hygiene interventions in an integrated manner.

The Government of Ethiopia has made remarkable progress in the past few years in the water and sanitation sector. In 2005, the Water and Sanitation Universal Action Plan (UAP) was formally established. The national poverty plans such as the Plan for Accelerated & Sustainable Development to End Poverty (PASDEP) implementation during 2005-2010 and the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) of 2010 are strategic frameworks to extricate Ethiopia from poverty so it becomes a middle-income economy by 2025.

The government is committed to create a favorable “enabling environment” for the WASH sector through developing clear policies, strategies, development programs and implementation frameworks such as the WASH Implementation Framework (WIF) which acts as the guiding document for the implementation of an integrated one WASH Program. The Ethiopian government has also laid out ambitious plans for water, sanitation and hygiene through its “Universal Access Plan II” (UAP II) – which seeks to reach 98.5% access to safe water and 100% access to sanitation by 2015. The major feature of the WIF is that it has the leadership of four government Ministries (Ministry of Water & Energy, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Finance and Economic Development) who have pledged, through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to support an integrated WASH program that addresses the needs of individuals, communities, schools and health posts more holistically and reduces bureaucratic compartmentalization of services. All the WASH stakeholders including the Ethiopian government have been undertaking their maximum efforts to improve the access of safe water and sanitation so as to increase the number of healthy and productive citizens. To reduce poverty and to insure sustainable socio-economic development the government of Ethiopia, NGOs, the public, and the private sector have engaged in implementation of water supply and sanitation projects i.e., study and design, construction, rehabilitation and maintenance, as well as capacity building activities at various levels with regard to rural and urban water supply activities.