Strengthening Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Regulation in Ethiopia to Support Service Delivery Professionalisation

Service delivery model professionalisation and the much-needed accelerated progress towards national and global water supply and sanitation targets will not happen without effective regulation. The need for effective regulatory systems is especially acute in rural settings, where the often dispersed and voluntary nature of service provision creates several challenges that regulatory actors can help to resolve through clarifying mandates, strengthening accountability pathways, instituting minimum standards and service levels, and promoting sustainable financing.

At Aguaconsult, we spent much of 2024 and 2025 working with ESAWAS to develop pan-African guidelines for regulating rural water supply and sanitation services and small water supplies in other contexts and are now looking to support the practical contextualisation and operationalisation of these guidelines at the country level. Towards this end, in partnership with ESAWAS and WaterAid Ethiopia, and under the leadership of the Ministry of Water and Energy, last week we conducted a three-day workshop in Bishoftu, Ethiopia to:

• Build key sector stakeholders’ understanding of the key elements of rural water supply and sanitation regulation.  

• Identify key pillars of a national roadmap for regulating rural water supply and sanitation services in Ethiopia.

The three-day workshop proved hugely fruitful and benefited from the regulators for Kenya (WASREB), Ekiti-State Nigeria (EK-WASRA) and Zambia (NWASCO) sharing their regulatory journeys and experiences, vibrant conversations, and robust government leadership. This helped to ensure it resulted in consensus and concrete next steps on a range of critical topics:

• The need to prioritise efforts to strengthen rural water supply and sanitation regulation

• Consolidating regulatory responsibilities for urban and rural water supply and sanitation services within regulatory authorities at the federal and regional levels

• Ensuring a clear division of responsibilities between federal and regional regulatory authorities

• Safeguarding the independence and financial sustainability of regulatory authorities

• Accounting for various service delivery models tailored to different service types and demographic settings

• Developing a national roadmap for strengthening the provision and regulation of rural water supply and sanitation services

We look forward to seeing the Ministry of Water and Energy continue to spearhead the process moving forward!