Rural water supply operation and maintenance in Ethiopia: a critical review of policies, proclamations, regulations and directives

Betelhem Gebeyehu believes that the greatest barrier to sustainable and resilient public services is not technology but the gap between what institutions are expected to deliver and the systems they rely on to achieve it.

Betelhem has spent her career understanding why some public services continue improving long after projects end while others struggle to sustain progress. Her conclusion is clear: lasting change depends on whether governments have the evidence, leadership, and institutional capacity to keep learning, adapting, and making better decisions over time.

That belief has shaped her work across Ethiopia, helping local governments and development partners strengthen the systems that sustain services rather than focusing only on infrastructure. She works across the full programme cycle, from design and implementation to monitoring, evaluation, and organisational learning, giving her insight into how technical decisions, institutional incentives, and public policy interact and influence one another. Whether advising decision makers, supporting independent evaluations, or designing approaches to improve service sustainability, she looks beyond immediate outputs to ask what enables institutions to adapt and endure.

She holds an MSc in Environmental Sciences (Water Systems and Global Change) from Wageningen University and Research and a BSc in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Addis Ababa University.

Highlights

• More than nine years' experience in systems research, monitoring, evaluation and governance across Ethiopia.
• Experience in strengthening public institutions through evidence-based planning, performance assessment and organisational learning.
• Published author on rural water service sustainability, governance, systems thinking and market-based sanitation.
• Completed Netherlands Water Partnership, Young Expert Program (YEP), YEP Water, working with IRC WASH as learning/ research advisor. 
• Working languages: Fluent in English and Amharic.

For nearly two decades, Girmachew Addisu has explored a question that continues to shape his work: why do some systems adapt and improve while others struggle to respond to increasingly complex challenges? His career began at Woldia University before moving to the Abbay Basin Authority, where he spent five years studying water resources across the Upper Blue Nile. There, the challenges appeared technical: declining water quality, growing competition between users, and increasing pressure on finite resources. Yet the deeper he looked, the clearer it became that the real drivers often lay elsewhere, in institutions, incentives, leadership and the choices people make.

Since joining IRC Ethiopia, now Riva, in 2019, Girmachew's perspective has expanded from seeing water as a resource to seeing it as a lens through which to understand how entire systems function. He works with governments, utilities, researchers and development partners to strengthen governance, investment planning, monitoring and learning, and climate resilience. His focus is not simply on generating evidence, but on helping leaders use evidence to make better decisions, align priorities and build systems that continue to learn and improve long after external support has ended.

What sets Girmachew apart is his ability to bridge science, policy and implementation. He has worked as an academic, a government specialist, an international research coordinator and a systems adviser. Through partnerships such as the Blue Deal programme with World Waternet and the National Science Foundation-funded Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) collaboration with the University of Connecticut, he has seen how evidence, relationships and institutions interact to create change. This inside-out perspective enables him to translate complexity into clarity and help leaders see not only where problems exist, but where opportunities for transformation can be unlocked.

Girmachew holds an MSc in Civil and Water Resources Engineering, specialising in Hydraulics Engineering and Water Resources Management, from Bahir Dar University, and a BSc in Soil and Water Engineering from Haramaya University.

A few highlights

• 18+ years of experience spanning academia, government and international development, including seven years at Woldia University, five years at the Abbay Basin Authority, and since 2019 with Riva (formerly IRC)
• Monitoring and Learning Advisor at Riva, supporting governments and partners to strengthen decision-making, accountability and long-term system performance.
• Resident Project Leader for the Blue Deal partnership between the Abbay Basin Authority and World Waternet, strengthening water governance and institutional collaboration.
• Coordinator of the NSF-funded PIRE programme, linking the Abbay Basin Authority and the University of Connecticut to advance research and decision-making in the Upper Blue Nile Basin.
• Led the development of monitoring, learning and information systems that strengthen planning, performance tracking and investment decisions across regional governments and utilities.
• Published research on water security, climate resilience, groundwater management and forecast-informed water allocation in the Blue Nile Basin.
• Working languages: fluent in Amharic and English 

Gezahegn Lemecha is a water and sanitation and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) systems specialist with more than 30 years of experience supporting governments and development partners to improve how public services are planned, governed, financed, and delivered. He believes that lasting development is achieved not through isolated projects, but by building capable institutions, fostering meaningful partnerships, and creating systems that continue to serve people long after projects have ended.

His career spans government, public enterprises, international NGOs, multilateral organisations, and the private sector, where he has worked as a client, contractor, consultant, and programme leader. This wide experience gives him a nuanced understanding of the priorities and constraints that shape decision-making across institutions. He is skilled at bridging the gap between policy and implementation, working closely with different stakeholders to build partnerships, facilitate dialogue, and support evidence-informed action.

Gezahegn's expertise includes water, sanitation and hygiene systems (WASH) strengthening, programme leadership, IWRM, institutional development, water governance, groundwater resources development, programme evaluation, action research, and knowledge management. In his current role as Programme Manager at Riva, he provides strategic direction for programmes that strengthen rural and urban water and sanitation systems through institutional capacity development, programme evaluation, partnership management, and sector learning. His work has contributed to policy dialogue, organisational improvement, and the generation of practical evidence that informs sector reforms and supports the scaling of effective approaches.

Earlier in his career, Gezahegn led large-scale groundwater exploration and water supply engineering programmes, managed regional water supply and water resources management operations, and guided multidisciplinary teams responsible for infrastructure development, utility governance, and public sector reform. This combination of technical and leadership experience allows him to connect engineering solutions with institutional and policy change.

Gezahegn is passionate about helping organisations learn, adapt, and improve. He values collaborative leadership, continuous learning, and locally led development, believing that the most effective solutions emerge when governments, communities, development partners, and the private sector work together towards shared goals. His work is guided by a commitment to strengthening public systems that improve people's lives and build resilience for future generations.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Geology and a Master of Science in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), both from Addis Ababa University. He is fluent in English, Amharic, and Afan Oromo.

Career highlights

• Supported the development and implementation of district-wide WASH master plans, resource mobilization strategies, expenditure tracking, asset management systems, and urban utility strengthening initiatives to improve service sustainability and institutional performance.
• Contributed to the development of Ethiopia's Guidelines for Strengthening Woreda-Wide WASH Systems, led the preparation of the policy brief Improving Rural Water Supply Financing in Ethiopia, and contributed to the policy brief on Climate Resilient WASH: Working Across SDG 6, supporting evidence-informed policy and sector reform.
• Was Deputy Bureau Head of the Oromia Water, Mineral and Energy Bureau, chaired the Regional One WASH Technical Coordination Platform, the Regional WASH Cluster, and was a director of the Boards of Directors of the Adama and Bishoftu Water Supply and Sewerage Utilities.