In Sub-Sahara Africa only 27% of the population and in Ethiopia only 11% have access to safely managed drinking water services. Inspired from the success example of the Municipality water partnership between Lausanne (Switzerland) and Nouakchott (Mauritania), the water services of Lugano (Switzerland) and Hawassa (Ethiopia) plan for a similar innovative collaboration. It comes with a “double twinning approach” as it will be accompanied by academia, the local University of Hawassa having entered into a twinning partnership with the university in Lugano, “Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana”.

In the context of growing urbanization the role of municipalities is becoming more important which is why synergies will be exploited with existing Swiss and global platforms where municipalities address other issues such as climate change, water or energy challenges linked to urbanization, population growth and migration in a perspective shared by the 2030 Agenda.

Direct Target group: municipality of Hawassa resp. its local utility, university of Hawassa

Indirect Target group: 10’000 Inhabitants of Hawassa, especially vulnerable men and women

Expected results:  

·  Peer-learning and exchange between Lugano-Hawassa and the existing partnership Lausanne-Nouakchott;

·  Students of Hawassa get continuous education on water and hygiene

10’000 persons have access to potable water (Sustainable Development Goal 6.1)

Results from previous phases:  

Lessons Learned from previous partnerships and projects in Hawassa by Swiss actors:

·      Necessity for targeted training in the water supply sector at all levels of operations 

·      Integrating a gender lens in the education and training 

·      Creating synergies between projects through common personnel training

The project will be based on the experiences drawn from the comparable partnership between the cities of Lausanne and Nouakchott stimulated through the SolidaritEau Suisse platform. This new twinning partnership will contribute to strengthen this platform and mobilize more municipalities.