TRANSPORT
TRANSPORT
TRANSPORT
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SOCIO-ECONOMIC BENEFITS<br />
SOCIO-ECONOMIC BENEFITS<br />
The Impact of Transport on<br />
Rural People: The Case of Dima<br />
Monastery<br />
Dr. Taye Berhanu<br />
Executive Director, Ethiopian National Forum for<br />
Rural Transport & Development<br />
Walking is the main mode of transport in rural Ethiopia.<br />
The case of Dima Monastery may be cited as representing<br />
the transport problems facing most of the rural areas in<br />
the country. In this part of Ethiopia, fetching water and<br />
fuelwood, washing clothes and taking baths, attending<br />
social gatherings during holidays, participating in cultural<br />
activities, visiting relatives and friends, taking part in<br />
political meetings and carrying out marketing all commonly<br />
involve walking long distances. Simply reaching a main road<br />
takes up to three hours on average and, even then, there<br />
is usually a lack of onward transport services. The country’s<br />
deficient transport infrastructure has particularly limited the<br />
chances of the aged and people with disabilities to access<br />
resources. The poor – and it is the poorest of the poor who<br />
live in the Monastery – are made even more impoverished<br />
and disadvantaged by inadequate rural transport.<br />
In such a context, transport can have multiple impacts – as<br />
has been the case of the transport problems affecting the<br />
Monastery, which is located about 315 kms from the capital<br />
city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. Dima is one of the oldest<br />
monasteries in Ethiopia. There are about 500 households<br />
around the Monastery, and about 200 residents – priests,<br />
monks, nuns, students and peasants – living within the<br />
church precincts. As churches in Ethiopia commonly serve<br />
as shelters, the St. George Church at Dima further hosts<br />
quite a number of aged women and men as well as other<br />
destitute people, including some with mental and physical<br />
problems.<br />
Monastery students carrying small plastic water jars, making<br />
repeated travels to satisfy household needs<br />
One of the main problems the people encounter is lack<br />
of water. Women, youths and children shoulder the<br />
responsibility of fetching water for the Church community,<br />
which necessitates walking one to two hours over rough<br />
footpaths. The terrain is not conducive for any kind of<br />
traditional or modern transportation so water cannot,<br />
for example, be transported by donkeys. The only option<br />
water fetchers have is to carry containers on their shoulders<br />
or backs over long distances.<br />
Walking and driving a donkey on typical terrains/footpaths in<br />
highland Ethiopia.<br />
Since road construction is too expensive an undertaking<br />
to be considered by a small and financially weak NGO, the<br />
Ethiopian National Forum for Transport and Development<br />
opted to concentrate on identifying the most pressing<br />
needs and priorities of the community, with a view solving<br />
the social problems related to transport. In this regard,<br />
04<br />
| IRF BULLETIN SPECIAL EDITION: RURAL <strong>TRANSPORT</strong>, VOLUME-2