Go and See in Gurageland

Some months ago, the REN4WATER team went to Ethiopia, in the Gurage Region, to do a context analysis. The key purpose of the trip was to understand the anthropological and environmental conditions for the forthcoming field tests of its Water Box solution. This pre-field test trip – that we later called our “Go and See in Gurageland” trip – has been done with the aim of gathering key information about people’s behaviors concerning water usage, storage and treatment, and has been supported logistically by our partner Engera, whose rural clinics scattered across Gurageland were one of the main focuses of the survey. In fact, clinics’ daily need of safe water is relevant, and so far the only way to sterilize water is through boiling; that’s why the connection between REN4WATER and Engera was almost automatic: our off-grid solution for pasteurizing water through renewable energy sounded perfect to medical doctors’ ears operating in a bush clinic.
We arrived in Zizencho, the highest clinic in Gurageland, in the middle of the rainy season, so that our “fieldwork” was very muddy and difficult, but we could nonetheless go on and complete our observation, thanks also to the Sisters who are running the place and who are used to fight (and win) against climatic adversities, scarcity of resources and human suffering.
We made interviews to several people, often at their fireplace, and we came to appreciate the smoky, dark but dry space of the traditional Gurage houses. While traveling on the main road, we were struck by the number of people lining-up with their yellow plastic jerrycans in front of a public tap. However, the man running the tap wasn’t able to deliver the much-needed water, because there was no power to run the pump. “Water will come for sure – people kept saying – later or tomorrow!”
REN4WATER Impact is currently in the design and production stage to deliver the first prototypes of its Water Box solution to the rural clinics of Gurageland.

Filippo, the Anthropologist