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The WSDP is contributing to major socio-economic targets such as enhancing the access of
population to safe drinking water, improving food security through extending irrigation, and
increasing the national production of electricity by constructing dams. Those programs may not,
however, be sustainable if certain conditions related to their potential socio-economic as well as
environmental impacts are not realized. The Government of Ethiopia recognizes that sustainable
development requires a balanced approach between the social, economic, and environmental
objectives of human activities, at all levels of intervention.
The planning process to date has produced WSDP in its current state, based on the analysis of issues
and strategic choices and the definition of its basic objectives, principles, and priorities that form the
PRSP
Strategy for
economic growth
based on
agricultural
development
leading to
industrialization
(ADLI)
Reform of the
judiciary and
civil service
Decentralization and
empowerment
Capacity
building
ADLI
Health
Program
Education
Program
Water
Sector
Development
Program
Food
Security
Program
under development
Volume I
Executive Summary
4
building blocks of the program. The program framework as it is presented does not mean the end of
the planning process, however. Indeed, since implementation still lies ahead, the planning process
itself has really just begun.
Significant portions of the proposed WSDP still need to be worked out in detail in the light of realities
evolve during the implementation phase. For example, this vast program is composed of four major
sub-sectors (water supply and sewerage, irrigation, hydropower, and general water resources), each of
which will undergo further planning, with respect to their relationship with each other and to crosscutting support elements of the program such as legislation, capacity-building, information
management, participation of stakeholders, and others. A second planning process will be undertaken
as part of the implementation process, as WSDP evidently will need to be subdivided into smaller,
more manageable components that correspond to individual donors’ substantive preferences and
financing capacities. A third layer of planning will take place at the level of the project, as each
project is designed and structured so that it meets the general policy and program objectives.
There should be no doubt about Government’s commitment to allocate higher resources for investing
in the water sector. A recent paper presented by the Government of Ethiopia in the Third United
Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (May 2001) provided Ethiopia’s development
vision over the next years (2001-2010). It was estimated that Ethiopia would need to invest an amount
of $39 billion to achieve the targets set under this vision. Out of this, about $25 billion would be
invested in major development programs which have strong impact on poverty alleviation. Not only
that water was identified as one of the important pillar of the development vision, it also received
significant amount of share in resource allocations marked for the development of social sectors. The
paper went on to state that water sector investments would be targeted to realize the objectives of
water resources policy issued in 1999.