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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

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