Addis Ababa's drainage and sewage problem

Tedla Asfaw

 

I grew in Addis Ababa and know  the sewage and drainage problem my city had then  twenty years ago when the population was a little more than a million and now this number is tripled without proper infrastructure to handle the growing population.

 

When I sent my six years old son with his mom to see hid grand father in summer of 2001 I got the first answer to my question regarding infrastructure at local level.

 

How is my father toilet, I asked my wife? The answer was "we flush the toilet and the water is not going any where" and it was a nightmare for the little boy. I know my father house has a septic tank like many houses in Addis where all the sewage settled and  is removed once in a while.

 

Our septic tank was built on clay soil common in Addis neighborhoods which is very elastic and cracks in dry season.The septic tank which is almost sixty years old might have deteriorated by now and it is no longer giving its service and as we know  there is no central sewage system in most of Addis to switch to. 

 

The sewage infrastructure as was mentioned on Ato Getachew Belaineh's well written article posted on www.nazret.com is nonexistent in Addis and it seems to me without that whatever new buildings are erected is just like clapping in one hand.

 

Ato Getachew also mention the sediment build up as a result of deforestation in Addis surroundings is also going to ruin whatever big roads built and all the public money invested in building new roads without taking care of the sedimentation problem is a disaster.

 

International organization who give loans to the infrastructure development I wonder why they did not make a prerequisite to develop sewage and drainage  structures that is compatible to the new development.

 

The bottom line for any development is also  participation of local communities at every stage of planning which is not the case in Addis Ababa.

 

Addis Ababeans were denied democratically elected councils in 2005 and TPLF after three years is now ready to put its own people back again and these new administrators  will not care for the millions of Addis Ababeans and the  seventeen years of their control of Addis is a dismal failure.

 

Addis Ababa which means New Flower has got new name by the Forbes magazine as the the six dirtiest city in the world.

 

All the new buildings and big roads that were built in the last seventeen years did not hide the fact that the city has no basic sewage and drainage system which is the requirement for a healthy city.

 

The current regime's polices are to make fast money and care less for the future of Ethiopia or its cities and the image of our cities for some who come after short visit are new buildings that rise in different neighborhoods.

 

However, for some good observers like Ato Getachew who truly cares for their people and cities that was not the case. 

 

Addis and most cities in Ethiopia are like  New York or London, forty or fifty years ago in their water and sewage development and to change that we need city administrations accountable to the people and the government which is investing for the future.

 

Five thousands signatures for What?

Tedla Asfaw

 

Engineer Gizachew and Dr. Hailu Araya on VOA Amharic(April 17) informed us that their signature drive  has now reached five thousands much more than the requirement put by TPLF and are working to legalize their party to participate in the 2010 election.

 

My question for these two gentle men is simple. What will their new party do different than the so called "loyal" oppositions of Dr. Beyene Petros, Ato Bulcha Demeksa and the Afar movement who realized in the eleventh hour that TPLF will never share power in the name of any kind of election with anybody.

 

Moreover, Dr. Hailu promised to win the 2010 election and did not say anything about the fake local election going on now in Ethiopia. The timing of their signature drive while Ethiopians both in cities and in  rural area are forced to vote for the millions of TPLF candidates is also troubling. Is it out of fear that after the "landslide" victory by TPLF they might not  get even the one thousand signatures required for legalization?

 

Is the 5000 signatures a sign of confidence for the coming new party as Eng, Gizachew alleged on his interview  while the regime dominates the election by bribe and force fielding  millions of candidates and destroying few of he loyal oppositions and force them to boycott this week local and by-elections?

 

By not condemning the 99 to one ratio fielding of candidates between TPLF and loyal oppositions they are expecting favor from TPLF and  be the next loyal opposition in the 2010 replacing Beyene, Bulcha, Merara and others to join their old friend Lidetu Ayalew.

 

Pro TPLF  websites have already called this week's election as a "Slam Dunk Election"  to be replicated for the general election in 2010. The "Dunk" then maybe on the heads of the new Kinijt that of Eng. Gizachew and Dr. Hailu. The millions who voted for Kinijit in 2005 will not be part of the game the result of which is well put in place.

 

The legalization of a new Kinijit party led by Weizero Birtukan Medeksa to replace most of the loyal oppositions is underway and we know also they might end up being an ally of Lidetu Ayalew who is known for giving few minutes speech in the TPLF's lecture hall after long hours of show from his TPLF boss to guarantee his salary.

 

What Ethiopians need now is not to bring new party to join TPLF in 2010 rather leaders that mobilize people to get their democratic rights to organize,speak be respected and you do not need one signature for that.

 

 

 

 

The one hundred years homework

Tedla Asfaw

 

I read a good piece by Ato Wardoffa Banti titled "What Lies Ahead for Ethiopia" on Internet. ethiopian-forum@yahoogroups, by bringing the "Fire and Straw/Esatina Chid" dichotomy brought by Melese Zenawi on his parliament "accusing" Isaias of Eritrea masterminding an alliance among OLF, Kinijit and others to form the Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD)more than two years ago in Holland.

 

AFD was attacked from its inception and now nonfunctional because there were and are some political groups and many elites who rejected it off hand because they are not ready to change their old habits of playing politics out of fear and suspicion seating in their own quarters unwilling to move one step.

 

The idea of talking with groups like OLF and ONLF which are accused of anti-Ethiopian by some elites derailed any chance of bringing different groups to debate and find solution for our country honestly and went back to old ways  of politics that you are either with me or you are my enemy the fertile ground to make the "one hundred years homework given to Ethiopians " by Isaias of Eritrea to be on its track for the last seventeen years.

 

The masses in Ethiopia are calling for oppositions of all colors to work together even if Melese's cadres have been instigating clashes between Amharas and Oromos in rural areas including university campuses and between Oromos within themselves or between Oromos and their neighbors like recently they did Oromos Vs Sidamas.

 

Ato Wardoffa brought Isaias' infamous declaration of "one hundred years of home work"  which is now eighty years to remain and most of the adults will surely  pass away and impossible for them to know their result if it is "A" or "F" or  remains unsatisfactory in the "D" range.

 

The "one hundred years homework" project designer  even if it is  Isaias, the political elites of Ethiopia played a big part to keep it in its right track at  least for seventeen years because they do not want seriously debate all matters relevant to our country without any preconditions. 

 

I have always said that without open free debate by all in Ethiopia and by talking and only listening to our own voices in our separate camps the one hundred years homework of Issays  might l be a reality way after we all passed away.

 

To derail this homework given to us we have to do our part while we are alive.We must be bold and seat down and talk. We have a good chance to knock down the homework that is implemented by TPLF. Isayas and Melese are  working from different angles with the same strategic goal of dividing us for the next hundred years to keep them and their followers in power until we finish their homework.

 

Ethiopians strong desire to live in a free and democratic society was all clear for all the doubters to see by  coming out in millions and voted against TPLF in May 2005. The new Ethiopia should bring all political groups, liberation fronts, OLF, ONLF. ARENA  and  nationalist groups like Kinijit be it Hailu or Birtukan, EPRP and others and establish a new constitution drafted by people representatives to be voted by all the people in Ethiopia.

 

Here is where the "Fire and Straw/Esatina Chid" that worried Melese Zenawi and made him  speak in animated mode in his parliament. He knows that coming together of all political groups without preconditions is going to shorten the one hundred years homework we were given by Isayas by many years.

 

Melese further go on  and call on his cousins in Eritrea to question the wisdom of Isaias. How can he do that ? "We all know that if the Oromos, Amharas, Somalis etc. come together not only they knock me down but also dangerous for you people there that you might lose the liberty you have been granted thanks to your heroic fighters and our gallant forces in unison by braking the back of the chauvinists".

 

Let us bring the "Fire and Straw" together and nullify the one hundred years of homework or keep in our separate camps wait for the "miracle" like we saw on the fake election's sky in Ethiopia yesterday, bright sun circled by rainbow for one hour, as a sign of change to come soon similar to that of 1991.

 

 

Melese Zenawi's blind worshipper

Tedla Asfaw

 

I heard Washera  on Ben's Internet radio posted on  www.ethiopiafirst  saying that the right to speak our birth language is a right our people got for the first time after TPLF came to power sixteen years ago. My father speaks Oromoifa and his mother tongue Amharic while my mother speaks Somali, Oromifa and her mother tongue Amharic.

 

No one told them which language to learn and use to go on their lives and to give credit for TPLF is absurd  because my family learnt these languages long before TPLF went to bush to take power from Mengistu Hailemariam.

 

This is true for most Ethiopians and what TPLF did is that it exploited the language differences like the former fascist, Italy in its short occupation of Ethiopia to control Ethiopia by organizing language based "control zones".

 

The majority of Oromos support OLF not OPDO, the Oromo control zones of TPLF and ONLF is widely supported by Ethiopian Somalis and if we had believed Ato Washera why do these movements fight TPLF who gave them for the "first time to speak in their own language".

 

TPLF has no new philosophy in ruling Ethiopia like Washera is alleging. It is an elite Tigrayans click which has monopoly on Tigreans and rule the rest of Ethiopia/control zones by brute force. It controls the economy of Ethiopia by its own companies that were looted from the Ethiopian people and exploited 9/11 and brutally ruling Ethiopia with the help of USA and UK. This is hardly a new philosophy.

 

Washera has the right to support TPLF and worship his beloved leader/philosopher, Melese Zenawi, and respect our right to hold him accountable for what he has been doing for the last sixteen years.

 

Ethiopians in America are very critical of the USA policy and picking  on  Dr. Taye and  accusing him of as a leader who preach the "USA and the West conspiracy against Ethiopia" is a smear campaign to show him as a bad guy in front of USA policy makers.

 

Whoever comes to power in USA in January 2009  we will put him or her on spot light regarding its Ethiopian policy and the diaspora Ethiopians will expose and  fight the coming administration if they continue on the failed Clinton and Bush policy that finance and arm TPLF and force our people to live in deep poverty.