A recent study conducted by the Addis Ababa City Fire, Emergency Prevention and Rescue Agency disclosed that 121,000 houses in Addis, including 1,000 government and private institutions are in locations vulnerable to flood disasters.
The study which took six months to complete identified 143 areas as having a high risk of flooding. It recommended that homes there be relocated or reconstructed to avoid a potential disaster that could take thousands of lives and potentially damage 4.5 billion birr in property.
A majority of the risky places are in Gullele and Nifas Silk Sub cities where houses are constructed near rivers and drainage sites.
The Agency, which is notifying home owners who are at risk, initially identified 53 flood prone areas but recently added 90 places to that number after another investigation.
Source in the agency told capital that many houses should be removed to save them from flood disaster.
“The housing shortfall is likely to increase vulnerability to flood events amongst three specific social groups. First, many people have been forced to live in squatter sites where no formal physical or social infrastructure is available and tenure is insecure. Second, the low values of rentals obtained relative to maintenance costs has meant that households in the public and private rental sectors may suffer from especially poor physical environments. Third, housing demand has encouraged house owners to sub-divide properties (leading to the creation of vulnerable “bottom houses”.
Riversides in Addis Ababa have been a source of worry for residents in their precipices. The areas have been dogged by landslides, pollution and lack of development for ages. But due to a spate of development activities around ten of them, that might change soon.
The research found that Addis Ababa rivers and riversides face problems which include: badly polluted segments through direct discharge of domestic waste generated mainly from households and institutions; river bank erosion; and inaccessible rivers and riversides.
UN figures show that this year alone, 117 million people around the world have suffered from some 300 natural disasters brought about by climate change, including devastating droughts in China and Africa, and massive flooding in Asia and Africa, costing nearly USD 15 billion in damages. This included Addis Ababa.
Last year there were 76 floods in the city, damaging houses and properties worth 20 million birr. Flooding also claimed the life of one man who lived in Nifas Silk Lafto sub – city. The figures are twice as many as last year.

With the initiation of the Ethiopian government a new institution is to be established in Africa to control the trafficking and fabrication of fake drugs across the continent.
The organization which is set to stretch networks among African countries will register original production place of the drugs, their destination and expiry dates to easily identify counterfeit drugs.
The new organization which has yet to be accepted by the Africa Union, will work to overcome challenges in forecasting and distribution that results in limited availability of key pharmaceuticals in hospital, long procurement lead items, inaccuracy in record keeping, issues with the quality of forecasting data, wastage due to expiry and damages and theft of drugs.
Dr. Amir Aman, Minister of Health during the conference said that fake dugs are threating Africa and all stakeholders should work together to combat this challenges.
“Most African countries import their products from abroad and with this process fake drugs will also come along to the continent. So we have to do a big assignment to stop this by working together otherwise it will lead us to big problem in our health facilities.”
He added that the new institution will work with government bodies, distributors and manufacturers to stop fake drugs in Africa.
The conference is organized by GSI, the global supply chain standards organization, in partnership with the Ethiopian Food, Medicine and Healthcare Administration and Control Authority (EFMHACA).
Ulrke Kreysa, Senior Vice- President Healthcare at GSI said that Africa should learn from Turkey to combat counterfeit drugs. “GSI Standards and barcodes are tools that can help all supply chain partners, to ensure that patients receive effective and safe medicines,” he further added.
Yehulu Denekew, Director at EFMHACA said, “ensuring the quality and safety of pharmaceuticals requires utilization of appropriate standards, most importantly the Global standard.”
“Stopping fake dugs is not only one body task, it needs a coordinated effort, good recording system and control should be placed. Turkey is an exemplary country. African countries should strive hard  to get good result for blocking  the production and importation of  counterfeit drugs.”
The presence of falsified medication is a huge threat to patients safety, especially in Africa. The world Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 10 percent of medication distributed in low and middle- income countries could be falsified. Falsified medicines negatively impact patient safety, might lead to loss lives, will have economic impact and will result in less trust in the healthcare system.
An increasing list of studies and surveys about fake, counterfeit and substandard drugs has emerged in recent years, but because of deeply entrenched interests from all sides – governments, NGOs and pharmaceutical companies – there has been great reluctance to call the scourge of killer medications in Africa and elsewhere a crisis.
About 100,000 deaths/ year in Africa can be linked to counterfeit drug trade.
This is despite the fact that everything from life-saving Aids medication to emergency contraception are being copied, faked and made with shoddy components on a huge scale.
The ‘Track and trace for access to safe medicines conference’ was attended by over 150 regulatory bodies and international organizations and more than 340 participants.

The Addis Ababa Technical and Vocational Education Training Agency announced that eleven colleges are now providing childcare training courses for those wishing to enter the daycare profession or work in private homes as nannies.
They include courses on feeding and caring for children under five years of age, Child Development and Creative Play, Health and Safety which includes handling fire emergencies, First Aid and CPR, Child Nutrition, Child Care and Household Management and Child Protection.
Zaru Simur, director of the agency, said that better trained nannies will benefit many families.  “Previously, there were not formal state institutions providing preschool care training. Many people rely on people who have migrated from rural areas to take care of their children so working parents and single mothers have no choice but to arrange for someone to look after their children while they are out.

“To tackle the problem we are pushing private and government colleges to train professional nannies  we know that out of the 11 colleges five of them are providing  better trainings.”
Solomon Mulegeta, owner of Eshururu Nanny Training Center said that many things has yet to be done to get to serve households and  childcare center   with trained person.
“Many daycare centers hire untrained nannies. Putting our children in the hands of someone who knows nothing about working with children is unfair.  It is good that colleges are providing childcare training but it doesn’t do any good if the market is flooded with unskilled nannies.”
“’Childcare is a huge challenge for our country because it is treated as an informal sector, much like cleaning – merely a maid’s job. Our children deserve much better than that. Recruitment of domestic workers and/or nannies is not monitored and there is no vetting system to establish the suitability of child minders.
“Childcare needs to be better regulated. The introduction of legislation requiring a minimum standard for in-home childcare service providers, plus the requirement for registration through a regulatory body would be a step in the right direction.’’ he said.
Recent reports indicate there are over 150 daycare centers in Addis Ababa. Because many daycare centers are operated informally little effective research has been done.