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Three million residents in Ethiopia’s capital without toilets

By Muhyadin Ahmed Roble | AfricaNews

About three million residents of Addis Ababa — one of the biggest cities in sub-Saharan Africa — have no access to toilets, according to a new report by the city authorities. It revealed: “Out of this nearly 25 percent of the population have no access to toilets and defecate in rivers crossing the city.”

Speaking at the launch of the report, Mekuria Haile, a senior local government official said Ethiopia cannot endure any more waste in rivers and roads, and want to make sure that the city is clean and a better place to live.

“We should be ashamed. Addis Ababa is fighting against solid waste management and health problems posed by unsafe drinking water and inadequate sanitation,” he added.

It was believed that the rural area is better than the capital because they have access to good latrines and safe drinking water.

Almost 66% percent of the Ethiopia population has access to safe water while other 56% has access to toilets, Bizuneh Tolcha, Public relations chief at the Water Resources Ministry said in an IRIN report.

11 thoughts on “Three million residents in Ethiopia’s capital without toilets

  1. as far as we know there is toilet problem in ADDIS most hotels even locktheir toilet most of the time. and there are hotelks without toilet also it is serious mater that any one should give attention.

  2. Someone needs some basic math class there. Starting from when is 25% of Addis population became 3 million???

    As I have been before, I am still wondering how ill minded and confused this website is. Just for the sake of defaming EPRDF, you rush to post such a floppy news.

    You guys tend to drive people to the EPRDF camp because of you nonprofessional, unskilled and confused reports.

  3. “It was believed that the rural area is better than the capital because they have access to good latrines and safe drinking water…” More drams – you cannot avoid seeing & smelling the problem in Addis Ababa therefore we shall admit it but the situation is better where most of you would not go & see it!

  4. In Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia and the head quarter of the OAU, free access to clean drinking water and modern toilets have never been a problem during the time of Emperor Haile Selassie (ጸሐዩ ንጉሥ). In his joyous day, the people of Addis Ababa never complained about the access to clean drinking water and toilet in their homes.

    The concentrations of too many Tegarues and too many Ethiopian Arab Muslims in this beautiful city of Addis Ababa have become the main factors for the lack of clean drinking water and toilet availability for all the people who live in Addis Ababa.

    When Meles Seitanawi defeated Mengistu Haile Mariam, he brought with him millions of Tegarues who do not know how to use toilet and crowded the city; immediately, the demand of clean drinking water and access to toilet skyrocketed: everything from clean drinking water to toilet to electricity to food supply to health care to education to transportation, and to good leadership became the daily problems for Ethiopians, especially for the citizens of Addis Ababa.

    The Woyanne government that cares less for the city of Addis Ababa and more for the city of Mekelle continues to squeeze the citizens of Addis Ababa by assigning from 10 to 15 people to live in a small room, which is not better than the Qaliti Jail’s rooms, and those who are forced to live in a small room are mostly the Amharas and the Oromos. The spacious and the clean rooms with everything comfortable in them are given ahead of time to the Tegarues and to some of the wealthy Arab Muslims.

    Some of the Amharas and Oromos who live in Addis Ababa don’t even have bathrooms; they have to go to some of the Tegarues’ houses for a bathroom. How many of the Tegarues will share their bathrooms with some of the Amharas and the Oromos without a heavy price, only God knows.

    Such are the dire situations in Addis Ababa today under the leadership of Meles Seitanawi. The problems of inadequate clean drinking water and modern toiletries in Addis Ababa can easily be solved by driving out the Tegarues from Addis Ababa and sending them to Tigray, their homeland. They are invaders, intruders, and they have looted the city of Addis Ababa and left it without a toilet and without adequate clean drinking water. They have consumed the wealth of the city and carried away the rest and hidden them underground somewhere in Mekelle: Addis Ababa and other big and small cities and towns and villages will be much better without the Tegarues, so let us drive out the Tegarues, and let us see if Meles Seitanawi can govern Ethiopia without these ruthless Tegarues.

    According to Mr. Muhyadin Ahmed Roble, Mr. Mekuria Haile wants to see the city of Addis Ababa ‘‘clean and a better place to live.” The point is, however, the city of Addis Ababa used to be a clean city and a pleasant place to make a living in this vibrant city, but its good image has tremendously changed for the worst after the city became the dwelling place of the criminals – Meles Seitanawi, Jezebel (Azeb), Aba Paulos, and all the Woyanne death squad.

    Of course, Addis Ababa will be a clean city again, a normal city, a city of progress and prosperity if we first clean out all the Woyanne criminals before we supply to the citizens of Addis Ababa clean drinking water, modern toilet, healthcare, and modern technology.

    The article blindly suggests that “the rural area is better than the capital because they have access to good latrines and safe drinking water.” I grew up in a rural area where there have been no latrines and clean drinking water, no electricity, no clinic, and no modern transportation: the rural area people wash their clothes, their bodies, and their pats and pans in the river where their animals drink and muddy up (ማደፍረስ) the water.

    Some Ethiopians in the rural towns may have very few latrines but not all of them: most Ethiopians who live in the rural area use the open space as their toilets like their ancestors had been using for thousands of years even though the Holy Bible says: “Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement.” (Deuteronomy 23:12-13)

    Following this Biblical rule of sanitation, some Ethiopians really dig holes and use them as their toilets, but others don’t. And those who have not yet learned the wisdom of the cat that covers its excrement must be ashamed.

    My dear people of Addis Ababa and all the citizens of Ethiopia, if you want your children to enjoy a comfortable life in the future, to own their own houses equipped with running water, with modern toilet, electricity, and with full access to everything your country produces, then remove Meles Seitanawi from his office and don’t let him govern you for another five or more years!

  5. Assta B. Gettu

    Now I get where you are coming from Mr. Gettu, the mother-of-all hatemongers. I’m not a big fan of TPLF apparatus but whenever I see comment like yours and overt chauvinist message of “us vs them”, it makes me ever wonder about the future of Ethiopia. Keep dreaming on your good olds of parasitic feudal and pseudo-aristocracy lifestyle. One thing for sure though: those dreaded religious and ethno-fascist heydays will never come back. You better adapt to the modernity and new way of life or your like-mended ones will perish without trace. The writing has been the wall for years.

  6. moe,

    I don’t think it is your big concern where I’m coming from, and no one insisted you to know Ethiopia’s futurity except to pray for the best of the country, for the elimination of Meles Seitanawi, for the downfall of Aba Paulos, for the imprisonment of Al Amoudi, for the total destruction of the Ethiopian enemies – the Ethiopian Arab Muslims – and for the release of Birtukan Mideksa from that dark cell, the Qaliti Jail.

    Do you have any clue what those days you have intentionally dubbed as “dreaded religious and ethno-fascist heydays” had been to millions of Ethiopians when we compared those salad days judiciously with the present gloomy or dusky ones?

    In those days, the days of King Haile Selassie and before him, all Ethiopians never lived in Kilil; they owned their own land, never forced to give their homes to certain Ethiopian tribes, never said: “This Church belonged to the Tegarues, that Church to the Amharas,” but they all worshiped God in any Church of their choices. Government jobs were assigned to the qualified Ethiopians: these Ethiopians could be Eritreans, Tigreans, Amharas, Oromos, Gurages, and many other Ethiopian tribes.

    In those glorious days, Ethiopia was ruled by a person who defeated Mussolini, but these days, Ethiopia is ruled by a person who indiscriminately slaughtered the Ethiopian heroes: the Amharas, the Oromos, the Somalis, and the many other Ethiopian tribes. In those days, government-paid boarding schools were provided for many Ethiopian boys and girls, but today, government schools and universities are filled with the Tigrean students excluding others, especially, the Amharas and the Oromos. In those days, many Ethiopian people were religious, honest, and dedicated to serve their country and to defend it from its enemy – the Muhammadans.

    In those days, Ethiopian children who lost their parents were raised properly by the help of the Ethiopian government; these days, the Woyanne government makes big profits by selling those precious Ethiopian poor children to the Arab-Muslim world. In those days, the Ethiopian land was for the Ethiopians only, but today, the Ethiopian land must be shared with the Egyptians, with the Saudis, with the Sudanese, with the Chinese, and with the Indians. What is more, the owner of the Ethiopian gold used to be the Ethiopian government; not any more! The owner of the Ethiopian gold is a Muslim merchant, Al Amoudi, the financial advisor to Meles Seitanawi, to his wife Jezebel (Azeb), and the architect of the industries in Mekelle.

    In those days, Ethiopians were free to listen to any radio station: French, British, Chinese, Sudanese, Somalis, and many other foreign radio stations; however, thanks to Meles Seitanawi, today, Ethiopians are not even allowed to read certain foreign or national news paper, and the best Ethiopian journalists such as Elias Kifle and many others are expelled from their mother land and are living scattered in various countries. When these distinguished Ethiopian journalists try to help through their web sites their people in Ethiopia, the Woyanne government purposely jams their web sites frequently.

    So, you wrote me: “You better adapt to the modernity and new way of life or your like-mended ones will perish without trace.”

    To you, I think, modernity or new way of life is to live the ways most of the Ethiopian people are living at home: life without freedom, life without adequate food, life without health care, life with everyday fear of being taken to jail without any crime, life with no access to pure drinking water, sanitation, electricity, and life with criminals – Meles Seitanawi, Jezebel (Azeb), Aba Paulos, Al Amoudi, and many Woyanne cadres.

    Or are you telling me I have to adjust my self to the American modernity or way of life, but such advice of yours debars or prohibits me from sharing the sufferings or blessings of my Ethiopian people? I rather prefer to be perished with my people sharing their cultures, history, tradition, religion, language, and their daily sufferings than to live a comfortable life in the west.

    Your last sentence: “The writing has been the wall for years” does not make a sense, so I leave it as it is; I think you are saying that the writing has been on the wall. If I am correct, which writing are you referring to? Are you referring to the Aramaic secret words – MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN – that were written on the Wall of King Belshazzar thousands of years ago? If so, read the book of Daniel, Chapter 5.

  7. Now that Addis has it’s ring-road completed, may be the next big thing should be installing sewage lines and treatment facilities. Provided funding can be secured, this can create thousands of jobs while tiding up the city. One thing though, Addis is overcrowded this days and it would be best if government can promote developments immediate adjacent cities such as Dukem, Sululta, Menagesha, Akaki etc by giving incentives for developers and property buyers more attractive tax rate and housing prices.

  8. Assa B. Getu
    I agree with you 100%. Some Ethiopians and bookkeepers of Weyane’s like MOHAMMED seem to be brain washed by TPLF, don’t give them nomind ,because this bookkeepers survive by kissing MELES’s behind. Low lifes are geting lower and lower day by day.

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