The Family Water Project aims to provide clean drinking water to 21,000 families in Ethiopia over 5 years through a cooperative program. Members will pay monthly dues of 25 cents to purchase Hippo water rollers, generating over $5,000 monthly for infrastructure. This will provide water to an estimated 168,000 people. The program will identify and refer malnourished children to treatment, improve hygiene practices, and develop community water storage using profits. The goal is to sustainably improve access to clean water and reduce malnutrition indirectly through improved health, agriculture, and economic opportunities.

1. Family Water Project
A Community Cooperative Program
Jonathan Davitte
Roshan Patel
Laurel Lloyd
Sara Sweeney
1
Sally Dover

2. Current Resources and Interventions
Nutrition inpatient clinics 1
RTUF supplementation 1
Increased food productivity
initiative 2
School meals 2
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3. Water in Ethiopia
41.2% of families have access to
safe water 3
Travel long distances to collect
water 4
Drought
Current projects for pipe and
pump systems 5
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4. Linking Water to Nutrition
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5. The Solution: Water Co-Op
Providing Hippo rollers to
21,000 families to provide
clean drinking water to an
estimated 168,000 people
over 5 years
Monthly dues of 25 cents
(US) per family generates
over $5,000 monthly co-op
income
5
See Appendix for Target Population Calculation

6. The Solution: Water Co-Op
Primary Intervention: share in Hippo
roller and monitoring by local
coordinator
Identification of acute malnutrition
Linking to treatment services
Education about basic hygiene and
water practices
Profit-based Intervention: community
water infrastructure development
(cisterns)
Long-term Intervention: capacity-
building
Community linkages to health care
facilities and other organizations
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7. Benefits of Water Co-Op
Clean filtered water, can be stored
Reduced incidence of diarrheal disease
Opportunity for improved hygiene
practices
Women-centered approach,
encompasses entire families
Less time away from home, child care
Increased business opportunities for
income-generating activities
Culturally acceptable way to address a
universal need
Community empowerment/ownership
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8. Implementation
Staggered recruitment
of communities over 3
years
Collaboration with key
community stakeholders
Phase 3
Community members
recruit women (families)
Phase 2 Reinvestment of
monthly profits into
Phase 1 community water
infrastructure
development
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9. Budget
Expenditure Over 5 Years
7,000 Rollers at $100 Each 9 = $700,000
Program management staff = $150,000
Facilities, maintenance, and transportation = $150,000
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10. Conclusion
Nutritional interventions alone cannot reduce burden of acute severe
malnutrition.
Improved access to and transportation of clean water can indirectly
reduce malnutrition.
Family Water Project provides:
A sustainable system for improving access to and facilitating
transportation of clean water
Identification of malnourishment cases and referral to already existing
services
Improvement of community water storage through profit cistern
development allocation
Direct improvements to health, agriculture, and economic potential of
entire families instead of only malnourished children
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11. References
1. Medecins Sans Frontieres. (2008). Field News: MSF Begins Nutritional Intervention in Oromiya, Ethiopia. Retrieved from
http://www.campderefugies.ca/news/article.cfm?id=2727&cat=field-news&ref=news-index
2. United Nations World Food Programme. (2010). Countries: Ethiopia. Retrieved from http://www.wfp.org/countries/ethiopia
3. UNICEF. (2007). UNICEF Ethiopia’s Water and Sanitation (WES) Programme. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: George Morris.
4. water.org. (2010). Alleviating the struggles of rural life for girls. Retrieved from http://water.org/2010/01/alleviating-the-struggles-of-rural-life-for-girls/
5. Water 1st International. (n.d.). Water 1st in Ethiopia. Retrieved from http://www.water1st.org/work/ethiopia/index.html
6. Eshete W. B. (2008). A stepwise regression analysis on under-five diarrhoael morbidity prevalence in Nekemte town, western Ethiopia: maternal care giving
and hygiene behavioral determinants. East African Journal of Public Health, 5(3), 193-198.
7. Motargemi, Y., Kaferstein, F., Moy, G., Quevedo, F. (1993). Contaminated weaning food: a major risk factor for diarrhoea and associated malnutrition. Bulletin
of the World Health Organization, 71(1), 79-92.
8. USAID. (2009). Family Planning, Countries, Ethiopia. Retrieved from http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_health/pop/countries/ethiopia.html
9. Pilloton, E. (2008). Project H Design Fundraiser- Sponsor a Hippo Roller! Retrieved from http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/02/19/project-h-design-fundraiser-
sponsor-a-hippo-roller/
10. United Nations Development Programme. (2006). Human Development Report 2006. Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty, and the global water crisis. New York.
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12. Appendix: Target Population Calculation
1 roller = water for 3 families per day
(7,000 rollers)(3 families per roller) = 21,000
families
(21,000 families)(average family size of 8) =
168,000 people 8
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