Great Run Ethiopia has launched a new website with the latest technology called progressive web apps. The website is able to operate well in every online platform and is mobile friendly. The previous website of the company got 1.7 million hits last year. The development of this new website will eliminate the paper based registration within five years.
“Progressive web application is the latest technology created by Google a few years ago,” Dr. David a delegate from the UK stated. “It takes the advantages of what you get on the desktop to a telephone, which saves a lot of money. The technology is said to add many new features to the website including saving dates and Google can save with it a security certificate.”
The adoption of the new technology is also expected to make the events organized and make it more accessible outside the country and facilitate the communication with its customers.
Online reservations for the 19th Great Run was also launched last week and will be conducted using the website.
A move towards state of the art
Ministry begins counting water and wash facilities
To get an accurate picture of Ethiopia’s water infrastructure, the Ministry of Water, Irrigation & Energy (MoWIE) has started a count which will take a maximum of two months.
Pipelines that connect villages and houses, communal water, and water stores, and dams will be counted in the census.
The counting will cover all the nine regions and the two city administrations and will involve an estimated 600,000 water facilities and infrastructure.
An audit system, investment return, and software and manual administration drinking water institution will also be looked at during the counting.
To conduct the work, the ministry bought 4,475 tablet computers with USD 2.1 million and 4,000 counters and 500 coordinators are participating in the work.
Seleshi Bekele, Minister of MoWIE told journalists that the counting will be a good thing for all stakeholders who work on water related issues.
“From policymakers to regulators the counting will help us to know exactly where we work and I urge all stakeholders to collaborate with us to finish this task.’’
Seven years ago the Ministry conducted the same kind of counting but the result did not bring about what was expected.
Water crisis is one of the most serious global issues of our time. There are nearly 61 million people living without access to clean water. This means that about 7.5% of the global water crisis is in Ethiopia alone. Plus, nearly 65 million people live without access to improved sanitation, and approximately 27 million people still practice open defecation. The vast majority of those affected live in rural, hard to reach places.
Ethiopia’s future plans for economic growth call for expansion in irrigated agriculture, manufacturing, hydropower and municipal water supply – all of which depend on reliably available water. At the same time, Ethiopia’s population is set to nearly double by 2050, increasing the country’s overall thirst. This demand for water is clustered in cities, which are home today to nearly 20 percent of Ethiopians, compared to only 6 percent in 1960. Historically, Ethiopia’s economic prosperity has been heavily driven by rainfall and water availability. Recent periods of GDP growth and poverty reduction also coincided with periods of more reliable rainfall and greater public investment. In contrast, previous periods of drought have severely constrained economic growth and exacerbated food insecurity. Given the country’s historically highly variable rainfall patterns, the unreliability of rainfall has played a significant role in Ethiopia’s development — and the health and growth of its children. As of 2014, 40.4 percent of children under age five suffered from stunting. Increased water scarcity decreases crop yields, which causes food insecurity and nutritional shortcomings in the crucial early years of children.
Tele to redistribute pay-phones, provide wifi on Ethiopian flights
Plans to charge for Whatsapp, Facebook texts
Ethio-telecom and Ethiopian airlines agreed to begin phone call service and WiFi services both on local and international flights.
Ethio-telecom has also decided to collect its existing 800 public pay phones and relocate them in prisons, hospitals and public universities. The telecom also has decided that there will not be more purchase of public phones as the penetration of other technologies diminished the demand.
“We were not getting reasonable revenue from the service and it is not feasible to run the technology without a profit,” said Cherer Aklilu, the Executive Manager of the CEO office. “After the penetration of the mobile phones the use for the public phones has become insignificant and that’s why we decide to relocate them in places where they can serve more.”
The public pay phones, which are already expired according to their production life span, are going to be maintained. The phones were bought before the introduction of the one birr coin and the maintenance is said to introduce the cents too.
The latest relocation will provide customers pay phone services at places where the possibility of access to other kinds of call services are rare.
The telecom also reached an agreement with Ethiopian Airlines to start air connectivity for local and international flights. The service is going to avail traveler’s need for WiFi.
“We have told the airline that we are ready to provide the service and now we are contacting global companies which are going to provide us an access to the satellite,” added Said Aragaw Chief International Business Officer.
The airline stated that it will launch the project after January 15 and that it expects it to transform its business and increase its competence in the global market.
The newly established division in the telecom, international business, also started negotiations with App operators like Whatsapp and Facebook to pay for SMS they send for their users, which was not monetized before.
“Currently we have international voice service agreements with 27 bilateral partners in order to provide voice service,” he said.
98% of decisions to prosecute made within 5 months
The Attorney General announced that it has made decisions about pressing charges on 98% of the files given to them by police over the last five months. Berhanu Tsegaye, Attorney General, told the parliament that among the 304 transboundary crime files sent to the office 232 had been decided on by the Office. There were 894 Economic Crimes and 686 (81%) were decided on, there were 1755 corruption crime files and 1655(94%) were decided on and there were 17,213 miscellaneous crimes files and 17,109(99.4%) were decided on. The office also issued new licenses. Out of the 235 lawyers who applied 178 were accepted. If a lawyer has a level one license they can try cases in all Federal Courts. The office gave out 129 of these licenses. They also gave out 49 licenses which allow lawyers to try cases in Federal First Instance Courts. The office was able to renew 1,363 existing licenses but 55 applicants were not able to pass the exam so they were denied the license.
The Attorney’s Discipline Board has reviewed 231 complaints and convicted 116 lawyers, while 18 were acquitted, in the past five months. The discipline was unable to rule on 97 other discipline breaches.
Currently, 4,325 lawyers work in the federal justice system, according to Attorney General, Brhanu.
Free legal aid was facilitated for 444 needy people through the Office by Lawyers while 260 are women, 2 are children, 46 youth, and 26 people with disabilities and 37 elderly.
He also revealed the budget usage ratio by the office for the past five months.
The Attorney General said it was difficult to prosecute suspected human rights violators and those accused of corruption because they did not get the corporation desired from the Tigray Regional State. He mentioned that the federal government asked that the former intelligence head be handed over, but the region failed to do so.
