Godey Water Supply Project

The Somali Regional State Water Bureau retained Burnside (and local firm MSC) for the design, tendering, and construction administration for the Godey Water Supply Project in Ethiopia, a project to provide clean water to over 100,000 people. Godey has suffered from inadequate water supply services for decades, in a desert-like region with high temperatures and low rainfall. The City has an existing water supply system that provides very poor service in terms of quality, quantity, and sparse network coverage, and is thereby providing limited access to the population. The existing system draws the supply from the Wabe Shebelle River which flows about 3 km west of the City and is deemed to be able to provide the yield that is required to meet the City’s projected long-term needs. A key challenge for the design was to address the high turbidity levels of the river water, which exceeded 4,000 NTU during rainy periods.

The impact of the completed project on the local community is enormous. The residents of Godey have suffered for decades due to almost inexistent water supply services, where the majority of the population had to either fetch water from the highly polluted and turbid river, buy water from vendors that sourced the water from the same river, or get water from the existing distribution centre that received water from the same river but with very limited and inadequate treatment. In 2018, there were approximately 300 service connections to service just 2,000 people, equating to a piped service coverage of only 3% of the population. Furthermore, those that had service coverage experienced reliability issues and water quality far from acceptable standards. When the project was completed in 2022, the new distribution network covered nearly 80% of the town and water was produced with excellent quality and reliability for 24-hour service for the entire population.