Environmental & Health Collaboration: Diverse Participation
The workshop was conducted on May 30, 2024 on two main focus areas: Resilience of onsite sanitation facilities and Emission of GHGs from onsite sanitation facilities.
Participants were invited from federal government offices, regional bureaus, and international organizations for the workshop. Officials from the federal government (Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Water and Energy and the regional bureaus were participated in the workshop (Health bureau, Water and Energy, Water and Sewerage Authority, Environmental Protection Agency). The regions participated are Harai, Oromia, Dire Dawa City, and Somali regions. Moreover, the international organizations including the GGGI and the World Health Organization (WHO) were attendants.
Dr. Abdi Mohamed Opens Workshop: Insights on SCARE, Resilience, and GHG Emissions
The Vice President officially opened the workshop for the Administration and development of Haramaya University, Dr. Abdi Mohamed. Professor Guy About, Dr. Jeremy Kohlitz, Professor Juliet Willetts, and Professor Barbara gave presentations on the SCARE project, Resilience framework, and Greenhouse gas emission. Following the framework presentation by Professor Willetts, onsite sanitation facilities’ resilience to climate change in Ethiopia was presented by Dr. Abraham Geremew (coordinator of the SCARE project in Ethiopia), and GHG emissions from the facilities were presented by Dr. Bezatu Mengistie.
After Professor Guy’s brief presentation on the climate risk narrative, Professor Barbara grouped the participants into five for discussion. Following that, every group got actively involved in determining what needed to be done in the future and the responsible body took the country’s future extreme climatic conditions into consideration.
In inclusion, strong engagement in the topic of climate risk and a high degree of acceptance of the resilience framework developed by the resilience team were seen after the workshop. The WHO delegate expressed interest in the resilience framework for on-site sanitation facilities that we used to assess the current condition of the facility in the study area. The delegate also indicated an interest in learning more about the frameworks and their possible use in the country’s WASH plans and programs by inviting the Ethiopian team to present at a national sanitation meeting that is set for next month.
Workshop introduction by Abraham Geremew
