Chapter 2: General situation of the project area
1. BSF/IFAD project
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Chapter 2: General situation of the project area
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2. General situation of the project area
The BSF/IFAD project will be implemented in 8 woredas of the SNNPR in South Ethiopia.
The SNNPR (one of the 9 regions of Ethiopia) is divided into zones and each zone is divided
into woredas. Figure 2.1. shows the position of the zones in the SNNPR and Figure 2.2.
shows the position of the selected woredas for the intervention.
This chapter will only generally describe the situation in the project area. The information to
do this was obtained from the supply side of the baseline study. A description of the baseline
study and the supply side is already given in chapter 1.
Since Ethiopia has only a few asphalt roads, the accessibility of some woredas is difficult.
One of the asphalt roads goes from Addis Abeba, through Awassa, to Arba Minch, the main
town of North Omo zone. Boditi and Sodo, the main towns of Damot Galle and Sodo Zuria
respectively, are situated along this road. From this road, Sawla, Gesuba and Karat, the main
towns of Goffa Zuria, Offa and Konso S.W. respectively, can be reached through gravelroads. Chencha, the town of Chencha Zuria can be reached from Arba Minch through a
gravel/earthen road. The easiest way to reach Bonga, the main town of Kaffa Shaka zone, is
by the asphalt road from Awassa to Jima (via Addis Abeba) and a gravel/earth road from Jima
to Bonga. These gravel/earthen roads are not always passable as very deep pits can develop
through the rain and bad maintenance. From Bonga, Tellocheta can only be reached by foot or
by donkey (45 km). Chena lies 75 km from Bonga and can be reached by car but travelling
time is dependent of the weather conditions.
Woredas are divided in kebeles which can only be reached by earthen paths. Rural and urban
kebeles are also called peasant associations and dwellers’ associations respectively.
The main agro-ecological zone of North Omo is Kolla. All the selected woredas in this zone,
except for Goffa Zuria, consist of Woina and Dega which causes high population densities.
The woredas of Kaffa Shaka zone consist also mainly of Woina. Goffa Zuria and Konso S.W.
are the only woredas who consist only of Kolla. The meaning of the agro-ecological zones is
explained in Table 2.1. (SNNP Regional Government and UNECA, 1996; own work: supply
side).
Table 2.2. shows the population numbers and densities of the BSF woredas. It is clear that
Damot Galle and Sodo Zuria are the woredas with the highest population densities. In all
woredas, 15% of the population is younger than 5 years and 3% younger than 1 year (own
work: supply side).
In all woredas most people are orthodox or protestant Christians.
The main ethnic groups are: Konso and Gewada in Konso S.W., Goffa Zuria and Oyda in
Goffa Zuria, Kaffa in Tellocheta and Kaffa and Bench in Chena. The people of Konso S.W.
still live in a more traditional way than the people of the other woredas (own work: supply
side).
The major economic activities of the households is limited to agriculture. In the towns only,
there is a higher number of households with a fixed income (Own work: supply side). See
chapter 4 for a description of the agriculture.
Only a small part of the population has access to safe water. The percentage of people with
access to safe water, a latrine or a waste disposal is given in Table 2.3. Latrines are
Chapter 2: General situation of the project area
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constructed with mud, bricks, cement or other material. The majority of latrines are not built
on a proper location as they are too close to houses or a safe water point. The maintenance is
often very poor, especially in public places (IFAD, 1998; own work: supply side).
Health care is very poor in the BSF woredas as can be seen in Table 2.4. Not even every
woreda has its own health centre and the number of people served by one health facility is
very large.
In Damot Galle, the BSF intervention will equip a health centre which was recently built by
the Ethiopian government. This health centre is still out of use as there is a shortage of
personnel and money for the equipment of the centre. The BSF intervention will upgrade a
health station in Offa and Chencha Zuria and a health centre in the other woredas. As seen in
Table 2.5. there are only 3 doctors available for the health centre of Konso S.W. and 2 for the
health centre of Goffa Zuria. In all other woredas there are only nurses or health assistants in
the health centres or stations. The number of informal health personnel such as Community
Health Agents (CHAs) and Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) is also very low. Offa has 14
CHAs which is the highest number of all woredas and Chencha Zuria has only 1 WHA which
is the lowest number. There are even fewer TBAs: the highest number can be found in Sodo
Zuria (12) and the lowest in Damot Galle (2), Chena and Tellocheta. Of the already few
delivery kits, none is complete. We can conclude that there is a great need for additional
health personnel especially in Offa and Chena where the health assistant has to lead
everything at this moment.
The staff of the BSF health facilities will be increased by doctors and nurses. BSF was
guaranteed that one doctor at minimum would be available for each BSF health centre.
Doctors are necessary since it is one of the objectives to install an operating room in the
health centres to be able to carry out important minor surgeries such as caesarean sections.