Ten-step guide towards cost-effective boreholes : case study of drilling costs in Ethiopia

This Ethiopian case study, taken together with other country and continent-wide studies of the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN), provides a 10-step guideline to reducing drilling costs. Increasing access to groundwater is a high priority for sub-Saharan Africa. One key to this is to reduce the costs of conventional drilling and borehole construction. This field note describes a recent study in Ethiopia and sets out some of the ways in which this may be done.
An investigation of the borehole drilling sector was undertaken in by the RWSN in 2005-06, aiming to develop an in-depth, integrated understanding of the sector. This included systematic and consistent costings and cost-comparisons, and detailed analysis of these costs. New approaches to the modelling of the qualitative and quantitative issues involved were also covered.
The case-study compared drilling costs in Sub-Saharan Africa with those in India, typically more than one tenth less. It makes clear, that there are good reasons for those differences and that simplistic comparison is dangerous.
Bringing about the required changes however is not so straightforward, as they require the committed involvement and participation of multiple stakeholders. These are public, private and civil society correspondence who must all share ownership.
It is clear, though, that if the Millennium Development Goals and national water supply coverage targets are to be met, reducing borehole drilling costs in sub-Saharan Africa must be a high priority. Even small savings could extend services to many millions of people across the continent.