Wastewater governance in the upstream catchment of the Awash Basin, Ethiopia: challenges and opportunities for better accountability

Water is not only a precious resource but also a social, economic, cultural, and political good. Urban population growth mostly fuelled by migration from rural areas, particularly in countries like Ethiopia, causes huge water use and places immense pressure on water resources, also resulting in growing volumes of wastewater, most of it released untreated into streams and rivers. On the other hand, the use of wastewater irrigation has increased in urban and peri-urban areas due to the scarcity of freshwater and the increasing demand for vegetables in urban areas. In addition, a rich nutrient found in wastewater has increased its use for urban agriculture (Hamilton et al. 2007).

The increasing use of wastewater has posed a new challenge for environmental management. According to the World Water Assessment (2017), the largest global water-using sector is agriculture, which includes livestock and aquaculture, accounting for nearly 70% of total withdrawals. There is a shortage of freshwater resources available for farming due to population growth and intensification of agriculture. As a result, wastewater irrigation is seen as a key coping strategy (Hamilton et al. 2007). For instance, studies were conducted in Mexico, where wastewater mixed with river water has been used for crop irrigation for decades (Assadian et al. 1998). Thus, the use of wastewater in irrigated agriculture continues to draw increasing attention from old and new crop growers, scientists, policymakers, and the general public. However, the contamination of river water with heavy metals is a serious environmental and public health concern due to its toxicity, persistence, and bioaccumulation persistence (Mekuria et al. 2021). Untreated wastewater is polluting water sources throughout sub-Saharan Africa, changing freshwater irrigation into wastewater irrigation in and around most cities (Bahri et al. 2008).

In Ethiopia as well, over the past few decades, there has been an increase in the use of wastewater for farming. The Awash Basin has been excessively used in wastewater farming because of its plain landscapes, nearness to roads, and large markets in Addis Ababa and the surrounding areas. Indeed, the basin is highly affected by wastewater farming in comparison to the 12 major river basins in the country. In Ethiopia, most industries located along the riverbanks have been discharging their effluents into the environment without any form of prior treatment (Yimer et al. 2020). For instance, most of Ethiopia's commercial irrigation and industries such as leather industries, slaughterhouses, and textiles industries are located along the Akaki and Modjo rivers in this basin, releasing their largely untreated waste into the river. According to the REACH improvising water report (2020), the Awash Basin is now critical for the national economy and supports the livelihoods of 21 million people. Agriculture, industries, and urban areas have expanded to the extent that demand for surface water now outweighs the available resources. Deteriorating water quality, alongside the impacts of climate change, is likely to intensify the existing challenges in the basin (REACH-2020). Though this basin constitutes about 10% of the surface area of all the basins in the country, around 5.5% of the irrigable land and over 65% of industries, respectively, are carried out here (Ayana & Alamirew 2007). Nonetheless, existing water and wastewater governance practices are poor in Ethiopia. The problem is more pronounced in the Awash River Basin (ARB), where many investors are given permits to run irrigated agriculture and to locate or expand their industries. In the urban areas within the catchments of the Awash Basin the demand for and use of water, and hence wastewater disposal, has increased (Yimer et al. 2020). This increase has been driven by urbanization and massive investments in major economic activities such as hotels and restaurants, hospitals, industries, and urban agriculture. Usually, large volumes of wastewater end up in little and big Akaki Rivers (Tegegn 2012), and Modjo River, as well as streams and open sewerages which drain into the ARB (Mulu et al. 2013).

Transparency is a principal mechanism for operationalizing accountability and also a response to citizens' rights to receive information and the corresponding requirement of powerful actors to release information (Hale 2008). It is the most significant dimension of accountability required to hold powerful actors to account (Koppell 2005). It also contributes to institutional reflexivity and adaptive management for responsive governance (Bahri et al. 2008; Hale 2008). The problem was clearly observable; nonetheless, poor governance in the management of the basin was observed. It is important to strengthen accountability in water and wastewater management to mitigate the threats that are posed by the pollution of the ARB and the use of wastewater for farming. In general, the study assesses the following relevant issues in wastewater governance, including analysing qualitative data across major groups of issues in accordance with water accountability components (i.e., responsibility and answerability; Table 1). The major issues are policy, standards, and regulations-related issues; management; collaboration and cooperation; health and environmental impact; data informing action and data-accessibility-related issues; and vulnerability and impact assessment issues are seen.

Even though there has been a good understanding of the impact of polluted water on soil salinity and human health, there has been a rise in the use of wastewater for irrigation and domestic use due to water scarcity. In line with this, irrigation with polluted water in urban and peri-urban areas has been growing in the Akaki and Modjo catchments. Many farmers in these two urban centres (Addis Ababa and Modjo) are getting more engaged in wastewater irrigation to improve their food security and livelihood. However, as wastewater often contains microbes and pathogens, chemical pollutants, and antibiotic residues, farmers, food chain workers, and consumers are exposed to health hazards (Roy et al. 2015). Wastewater irrigation may lead to the transport of heavy metals to soils and may cause contamination of crops (Qadir et al. 2010). Some of these heavy metals may be bioaccumulated in the soil, while cadmium (Cd) and copper (Cu) may be redistributed by soil fauna such as earthworms (Kruse & Barrett 1985). Industrial wastewater plays a significant role in the pollution of groundwater, rivers, and water bodies (Jiménez Fdez De Palencia et al. 2018). Thus, governmental bodies should be aware of this and take necessary practical control and mitigation measures by involving the different stakeholders, including the polluters and affected communities. Even though there is a water resource policy in Ethiopia and laws meant to prevent water pollution, there have been problems with accountability and practice. The use of poor-quality water for agricultural activities can affect crop yield and cause food insecurity (Shivaraju 2011; Omosa et al. 2012; Owa 2014).

Currently, in Ethiopia, because of the poor national wastewater management, non-application of the polluters pay principle, and poor law enforcement and regulation, most industries discharge their wastewater into the environment without any form of prior treatment. Additionally, because of low capacity, the vulnerable citizens do not exercise their rights or do not keep in check those in public authority, also due to a lack of structured systems. Environmental damage has not been well emphasized by the government which is why citizens are being affected by the polluted water. In fact, environmental protection should be a national interest and needs commitment. This implies that the wastewater management and governance practice have been going unchecked and worse. The water sector is a core sector for any type of development, agriculture, livelihoods, industries, and ecological services. Enhanced accountability in water governance will support economic growth and ensure water for all safely and equitability to protect the ecology and human wellbeing. So, solving the water quality challenges is not something one institution can do alone. It needs collaboration, coordination, accountability, transparency, and responsiveness among partners, and others will be encouraged to tackle the existing problems in wastewater use-related risks through collective actions.

This study investigates and finds the duties, responsibilities, and willingness of governmental bodies, stakeholders, partners, and users. Against the objectives listed below, the study has the following questions:

• What is the status (i.e., perception, nature, extent, cause, effect) of water pollution or improperly managed wastewater in the ARB?

• What motivates or demotivates regulators to discharge or not discharge their responsibilities? (What accountability systems and mechanisms? How and Why? Who are the polluters?)

• What motivates and demotivates the different polluters to discharge or not discharge their responsibilities? (What accountability systems and mechanisms? How and Why?).

• What motives individuals/households to be engaged in wastewater farming?

The overall objective of this study is to understand the challenges in wastewater governance; to examine the system of accountability and its practices with respect to the governance of wastewater (or polluted water) and its use for irrigated agriculture in the ARB, with specific reference to the Akaki and Modjo catchments. The specific objectives of the study include:

• (i)

  To understand the levels of wastewater use for agriculture purposes, the factors motivating this, and the negative impacts so that new knowledge and insights are generated for possible action by government and other sector actors.

• (ii)

  To know how the perceptions of the pros and cons of wastewater agriculture by regulators, polluters, and farmers promote or retard appropriate measures to reduce or mitigate the risks and harms.

• (iii)

  To provide evidence-based actionable recommendations for healthy management of such water for agricultural irrigation by major stakeholders, and

• (iv)

  To contribute insights to the wider accountability knowledge and theory to strengthen practice.

The study covers the upstream Koka Sub-Basin of the ARB, Ethiopia. It comprises the Akaki catchment (near Addis Ababa) and the Modjo catchment (near Koka town and Alullala village). The study was carried out for three consecutive months in two phases from April to June 2022. It assessed the impact of urban wastewater irrigation; the status of wastewater governance and accountability in wastewater management, and its adverse impacts on livelihoods, soil, water quality, and health as well.

The study employed mixed methods, though largely qualitative. The data collection mechanisms were devised to generate the data that would best respond to the research questions. Primary data sources for the qualitative data generated comprise field observation, interviews (KIIs), and discussions (FGDs), while quantitative data were collected through surveys. The Key Informants Interviews (KIIs) were conducted face-to-face to gain the insights, understanding, knowledge, beliefs, and perspectives of the key informants. Where local respondents did not speak or understand the Amharic language, a local translator was used and the interviewees responded in Afan Oromo. This provided opportunities for uninhibited interviews, expressions of ideas and exchange of thoughts/beliefs, feelings, and action tendencies on different issues. Like with the farmers and communities, all interviews with regulators, directors, senior experts, community leaders, firms, farmers, and technicians were conducted by the researcher, on a face-to-face basis at villages, the workplace, farmlands, and offices. In the study, the achievement of the survey was good; the aim was to gather data through 35 KIIs, 14 FGDs, and 39 industries through discussions, interviews, and observations. In practice, the researchers were able to gather data from 32 KIIs, 9 FGDs, and 31 industries. Among the surveyed industries, 20 potential pollutant industries are 13 tanneries, 4 slaughterhouses, 2 textiles and garments, and 1 brewery located in Modjo town. Similarly, 11 industries composed of 5 tanneries, 2 breweries, 2 soft drinks, 1 paint factory, and 1 winery were observed in Addis Ababa.

Among the major potential industries categorized by the basin development authority (AwBA 2017) tanneries, brewers, soft drinks, slaughter and abattoir houses, paints, textiles, and flower farming were selected as potential pollutants. A total of 53 questionnaires were distributed to company leadership and staff, namely the general directors, production managers, and senior experts for purposively selected industries approached through their human resources departments. Forty-two questionnaires were returned with a response rate of 80%. Regarding respondents' positions, 7% held the general director's position, 35.7% were production managers, and the remaining 57% were senior experts and environmentalists. The researcher also used the observational method as a tool for collecting data and information before the questionnaire design and after the start of the research. The researcher adopted four focal sites for observations: manufacturing industries, farmlands, inhabitants, and harvesting phenomena in the study area. During the observations, the researcher noted farming practices, the status of wastewater used the risks to human beings and livestock, and the environment.

The present pattern of wastewater management and wastewater use for urban agriculture is not well supported, governed, and led by regulatory bodies. Most of the surveyed industries are agents of pollution because they release dissolved and suspended potentially pollutant chemicals into the environment. Participants in the study, particularly professionals involved in FGDs and KIIs (industries), agreed that regulatory bodies were not working as per the tasks given by legislative bodies. They were also asked about the wastewater discharge ‘where the industries discharged /released their wastewater’. Consequently, of the 40 industries surveyed, approximately 88% discharged their wastewater directly and indirectly with 47.6 and 40.5%, respectively, into nearby rivers. The remaining 12% of industries discharged wastewater into closed valleys and into the ground. In fact, they have polluted the environment, soil, and other resources necessary for livelihood, health, and economic development, including industries and the entire ecosystem.

Whereas just 9.5% of respondents (industries) do not have a system and were not using the standards 86% of them claimed to have this but it was not possible to prove this by observation. Therefore, this reveals there is a lack of transparency on the side of the great majority of industries and they want to operate polluting the environment with impunity. This could also be because of the weakness of the regulatory bodies and as a solution; the industries may need capacity support on top of regulation and sanction and awareness creation. Nine percent of respondents replied that there is no transparency on wastewater governance issues. Almost all surveyed industries (95%) used groundwater sources. In Ethiopia, groundwater is a critical source of agriculture and drinking water supply (Arefaine et al. 2012), but also a source for industrial uses in the upstream Koka Sub-Basin. However, almost all surveyed industries do not have a flow-checking meter to ensure efficient use of water and are not well managed. And what they have been doing so far is unmonitored. That is why most industries do not know the actual volume of water abstracted, used, and wastewater discharged. This is primarily because the government or responsible government organs are not engaged in monitoring these aspects and providing the necessary support for the industries to discharge their responsibilities and become accountable to the government, the people, and the ecosystem.

According to the report released by Water Footprint Network Report, globally, about 17% of all extracted water is used for industrial purposes. The visualization provides an overview of industrial water consumption as measured as a percentage of total water consumption. In contrast to the global distribution of agricultural water use, industrialized water tends to predominate in high-income countries and low in low-income countries. For example, in Ethiopia, among the top five water using industries; textiles, meat production (slaughterhouses), beverage industry, and the tanning industry are the biggest users of water. Among the industries studied in this work, textiles, breweries, soft drink factories, tanneries, and slaughterhouses are the biggest consumers of groundwater that have been extracting unregulated quantities (Mulu et al. 2013).

Water is used for many industrial applications including steam generation, washing, and cooling of production equipment. Industrial water is also used as cooling water for power generation or as wastewater from some industrial processes. For instance, 40% of the tanning industries are situated in Modjo town. They use large amounts of water to process rawhide. The survey found an unregulated amount with an average of 505 m³/day (ranging from 2,000 to 100 m³/day) of groundwater abstracted by each industry and released an average of 425 m³/day. Each industry like tanning, brewery, and slaughterhouse in Modjo town is abstracting groundwater without using a regulated approach. For instance, of surveyed industries, UB22, JXZT22, LSA22, and ET22 abstracted 600, 400, 420, and 1,500 m³/day groundwater, respectively. To estimate the daily abstraction of groundwater and water loss, the following question was asked: ‘how many litres of water are you abstracting from the groundwater and releasing into surface water bodies?’ The findings show that most industries are not monitoring the practice or abstraction and then not giving you the exact values, rather they are trying to tell you about the number of wells, rather than telling about the actual value to this but industries including UB22, JXZT22, LSA22, and ET22 released 200 m³/day, 350 m³/day, unknown, and 1,000 m³/day, respectively.

Almost all (95%) of the respondents know of the existence of poor wastewater management, which affects the communities and the environment. Industries can act against their knowledge (they know very well about the environmental laws and regulations and also the consequences). According to the study, respondents replied that it might be due to a lack of skilled professionals, lack of finance, expensive treatment facilities, lack of government support or weak government regulation, and monitoring activities. So, industries are abstracting and using water without a fee and the management is not good so far. This implies that regulatory bodies are not discharging their responsibilities, and preventing industry from using this scarce resource freely and without any accountability.

Due to the scarcity of freshwater resources, and the richness of wastewater in nutrients, there has been a rise in its use for irrigation. In the past two decades, wastewater agriculture has been growing in urban and peri-urban areas mainly downstream of towns. This has also been in response to increasing urban food demand, market availability, and reduced need to use commercial fertilizers because of the nutrient richness of wastewater. Farmers in the proximity of the study area, particularly the Akaki catchment, are vulnerable to floods in the rainy season. The irrigated land is mostly found at the downstream stretch of both the Little and Big Akaki Rivers, particularly starting from the Terunesh Beijing Hospital to the Aba-Samuel Reservoir (Bekele et al. 2022) which are highly vulnerable to flood. The river water quality has been decreasing because of treatment ineffectiveness, poor commitment, and lack of serious oversight, particularly from governmental bodies, the private sector, and the public at large. The farmers are dependent on untreated wastewater because of its contribution to urban food supply and poverty alleviation (GTZ 2002).

All the communities and sites visited and observed confirm that polluted river water use affects the environment and human health. In both catchments, untreated discharge of effluents from tanneries, breweries, paints factories, abattoir houses, and soft drink factories has been increasing and becoming a serious concern. Sewage and domestic waste are factors exacerbating the problem. Due to the polluted river used for urban agriculture, weeds and fungus appeared and the land has been degraded. The highest values of electrical conductivity have been observed in both sampling areas. This high salinity content can affect the river water for irrigation uses (Tegegn 2012; Howladar et al. 2018; Yimer & Geberkidan 2020). Two of the major rivers in the upstream Koka Sub-Basin, Akaki, and Modjo, crossing the city and affected by industrial and urban wastewater, are considered dead rivers because of these discharges and runoff-related issues (Berihu 2007; Tegegn 2012; Woldetsadik et al. 2018; Hershfield 2019; Yimer et al. 2020).

In the dry season, wastewater without any significant treatment is used for irrigation purposes. People who live near Koka town have faced health risks due to a high degree of contact with polluted rivers (both from KIIs and FGDs). However, the regulatory bodies were advocating food security-related issues, whereas the water quality-related risks were not equally emphasized (Feed the Future 2022). The researcher also asked respondents to understand the impacts of poor wastewater treatment on their livelihoods: ‘Do you think poor wastewater treatment is something that is affecting or going to affect the community and the environment?’ In response, 95% of respondents said that improperly treated wastewater discharge potentially has been affecting the environment, human health, and livelihoods. For instance, the study results clearly show that poor wastewater management affects the hotel and tourism sectors, and socioeconomic and livelihood impacts in Modjo town are said to be high. Because of environmental pollution and bad odours inhaled in the air, most visitors, tourists, and guests are not happy to visit or stay there.

As shown in Figure 3 (picture in the middle), children swim in the polluted river water. Communities also use the water to wash their clothes, legs, and hands after farming and feel shame or discomfort when they are approaching or meeting with others due to the bad smell their clothes may give off. The health risk from wastewater usually comes from microbial pathogens, nutrient loads, heavy metals, and some organic chemicals (Toze 1997; Kanu & Achi 2011; Edokpayi et al. 2015). Bacteria are the most common pathogens usually found in untreated wastewater and cause several infections and diseases, particularly in young, pregnant, immune-compromised, and aged people (Edokpayi et al. 2015). People are not safe and healthy. Spots on their skin and skin dryness were common for most farmers. According to discussions and interviews with the vulnerable communities, allergic, asthmatic and cough cases have been increasing for the past ten years in both study areas. The health of the public has been at risk, as was the health of local waterways severely impacted by industries discharging untreated wastewater, or wastewater with limited pre-treatment, directly into nearby rivers. Nonetheless, governmental bodies are not discharging their responsibility to hold polluters to account, and negligence and recklessness seem to be prevailing. The vulnerable communities' voices are not heard; rather the local government has now started pushing the farmers to shift to commercial wheat production (in the Adlulala Kebele, Modjo catchment) which is high on the current political priorities for crop production in the country.

According to Weldegebriel et al. (2012), 60% of the city's (Addis Ababa) vegetable consumption, particularly leafy vegetables, is supplied by urban farmers who irrigate their crops using polluted river water. Regarding bioaccumulation, the concentrations of Cr and Pb in the examined fish species were above the maximum permissible limit and the accumulation of the metals shows an increasing trend (Serte 2018). The soils show a high level of contamination. These pose health risks to consumers (Raji & Oyeniyi 2017). The irrigated land in the study area is mostly found at the downstream stretch of both Little and Big Akaki Rivers, particularly covering the stretch starting from the Tirunesh Beijing Hospital to the Aba-Samuel Reservoir, which is highly vulnerable to flood as well (Birhanu et al. 2016; Worku et al. 2022). Similarly, the highly irrigable land at the catchment of Modjo is found downstream of Koka town, which is also a flood area. However, in the dry season, farmers who live downstream of the urban towns in both areas intensively pump the polluted water for food security and economic sustainability (Melaku et al. 2007).

Most of the respondents agreed that the use of wastewater affects the soil salinity. The land productivity has been decreasing and the development of worms, weeds, and fungus has been appearing in both catchments. Bioaccumulation of heavy metals might occur and spot development has been observed (Khan et al. 2008) in vegetables, which is an indicator of plant toxicity. Accordingly, studies revealed that unusual human health problems including kidney failure and cancer cases have been increasing in Ethiopia and are perhaps related to the ingestion of contaminated vegetables. The Awash basin is highly polluted and abused. Pollution like heavy metal pollution has been increasing due to anthropogenic and geogenic factors. Accordingly, the human health and ecological risks of the Awash basin have been studied recently by Abebe et al. (2023) showing an increasing trend. Notwithstanding, the wastewater or polluted water-based agriculture in urban and surrounding areas is growing.

Thus, vegetable toxicity becomes a tenacious issue. The kidney is a target organ in heavy metal toxicity due to its ability to reabsorb and concentrate divalent ions and toxic metals. The degree of renal insufficiency and kidney impairment depends on the nature, the dose, and the time of exposure. Acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease (CKD) by heavy metals diverge from the mechanism of toxicity. For this reason, clinical features and a therapeutic approach are also peculiar (Sabolić 2006), accordingly, the prevalence of CKD has been increasing, and studies also show that CKD ranges from 14.3 to 26.3% (Geletu et al. 2018). The study also found that no serious risk assessment and risk mitigation measures were carried out in the study areas. Despite the hazards of wastewater farming, responsible government departments such as agriculture, water, and energy were not supporting farmers on how they could decrease contact with wastewater and use polluted streams safely for urban agriculture. Governmental bodies were working on expanding urban agriculture for food security using urban wastewater without consideration of the quality.

The communities near the industrial areas are highly vulnerable and exposed to chemicals. As noted earlier, people in the study area contended that the river water is polluted but knowingly, without choice, they have been using it, and growing crops using the polluted water. They said this is a survival issue, not an option. In the evening, a bad odour disperses and comes to the residences. Even if some families are trying to make their children wary of the water quality of the river, kids are swimming (Blumenthal et al. 2000) in the polluted river and risking their health (Figures 4 and 5(i)–5(vi)). Communities know the effects but to sustain themselves have been using the waters for irrigation and even washing after farming. Actors in the basin were also not working jointly or separately to protect the environment. The absence of an environmental court, weak practices regarding compliance, and the compliance and enforcement systems for the quality of wastewater have contributed to the deterioration of the environment. Knowingly or unknowingly, the major actors were not worried about the quality of irrigation water that has been used and its consequences on human health and the environment.

Information gathered from respondents showed that the legal framework of water policy has been present and placed at different levels. The constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) (article 44/1) provides that all persons have the right to live in a clean and healthy environment, while Article 92/1 states that the government has the duty to ensure this right. Environmental protection is also mentioned in different legislations and policies. For instance, the Environmental Policy (1997) stressed ensuring improved environmental sanitation to be placed highest on the Federal and Regional agendas for achieving sustainable urban development. Similarly, the water resource management regulations set clearly that prominent wastewater effluents shall be treated based on the provisions of Article 13 (2) of the Proclamation and Article 5 of this regulation. Applications for the direct or indirect discharge of any treated trade effluent or sewerage effluent, or any poisonous, noxious, or polluting matter into surface or groundwater shall be made to the supervising body. Here also, in deciding whether to grant or refuse a permit for the discharge of treated wastewater into water resources, the supervising body shall, among other things, take into consideration effluent and/or stream standards. Any person using water for industry or for any other purposes which may cause pollution shall have an obligation to discharge only the type and volume of treated waste permitted.

The Environmental Pollution Control Proclamation No. 300/2002 clearly states that ‘no person shall pollute or cause any other person to pollute the environment by violating the relevant environmental standards and all urban administrations shall ensure the collection, transportation, and, as appropriate, the recycling, treatment or safe disposal of municipal waste through the institution of an integrated municipal waste management system’. Different policy documents also describe the roles and responsibilities of the government departments in the sector. Despite the proclamation giving a clear mandate to the Ministry of Water and Energy (MoWE), the issue of wastewater management has been left to individual towns and cities with a higher level of involvement of the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing (MoUHD) (Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia MoWE 2018). The urban wastewater management strategy document was prepared in 2015, by MoWIE, to ensure environmental protection and mitigate the impacts from wastewater on the environment and also to ensure health protection and wastewater services to the urban populations. However, the urban wastewater management strategy has not been implemented. In sum, there is a comprehensive policy framework. Nevertheless, as seen, the practice in the management of wastewater is poor. Industries still release untreated wastewater. Arguably, the laws and regulations are in place but are not guaranteed to protect the communities and the environment.

Data gathered from all sources at different levels reveal that there is some mandate overlap and a lack of proper demarcation of roles and responsibilities. Regarding the governance of wastewater management in the study area, the findings also show that this is poor and needs urgent attention. The regulatory bodies involved in wastewater governance, including the ministries of water, agriculture, health, irrigation and lowlands, industry, environmental protection authority (EPA), and a few others, do not have clarity about their roles with respect to wastewater governance. Even if these ministries have a mandate or task that is given by the legislature, they are not carrying out their responsibilities. Nevertheless, they are not held accountable as there is a weak system of accountability. Among others, weakness in wastewater governance could be attributed to poor institutional and human capacity and limitations in political commitment by office holders in key departments. For various reasons, public participation (young volunteers on environmental management) in relation to environmental performance was weak. Or even public participation and involvement in all corporate governance issues in the decision-making process, policies, plans, or programmes are highly recommended for better community empowerment and increased social responsibility (Quick & Bryson 2016; Guo & Bai 2019). According to this point of view, the government of Ethiopia should mobilize communities in all forms of governance-related issues like ecological, social, environmental, and the like.

Regarding the roles and responsibilities of regulatory bodies, a little over half of respondents (52.4%) agreed to the list of responsible regulatory bodies including the MoWE, the EPA, the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Industry (MoI), and Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands (MoILLs). They (KIIs and FGDs) replied that regulatory bodies like AwBO and MoWE did much in industrial wastewater monitoring activities because the government is responsible for ensuring the safety and security of all citizens (Minnaar 2010). In total, 35.7% of respondents (from the industry side) replied that the signatory bodies (MoI, EPA, & MoWE) did nothing on wastewater management activities due to the lack of political will of leaders. Leaders are not fully engaged with protecting water quality in the rivers, with other priorities taking precedence. Most industries did not treat their effluents well enough because of the high cost of chemicals and their limited availability, shortage of hard currency, and lack of professionals (Yimer et al. 2020). Almost all surveyed industries have conventional effluent treatment plants, but most industries do not expect consequences for polluting the environment. So, they keep discharging untreated wastewater into the water bodies, particularly in stealth in the middle of the night. Findings from key informants and focus group participants also reveal that most industries are discharging untreated wastewater into the environment due to recklessness and inattentiveness (Yimer et al. 2020).

Almost all the respondents said that anyone can tackle untreated wastewater discharge if and only if systems are well-organized and in place. Unfortunately, they cannot because the systems were not free from corruption. The environmental protection activity and compliance systems were monitored by EPA professionals from the Federal, Regional, and Woreda levels. However, compliance and monitoring activities were carried out separately, did not work together, and do not have a common monitoring time. This weak horizontal link between sectorial accountability mechanisms makes them susceptible to corruption; asking for additional enticements for their regular work without indignity and trying to undermine the sector work. Local authorities are not transparent, accountable, and responsible for their tasks, duties, and principles to protect the environment. Moreover, the respondents affirmed that regulatory bodies, private sectors, and every citizen have a responsibility to protect the environment. The task of regulatory bodies is to organize, follow up, monitor, support, and encourage civic engagement and participatory ways to protect and tackle environmental degradation. However, serious difficulties such as not reaching out to communities and listening to their voices remain major obstacles. The members of the public do not have platforms or mechanisms that will help them to share information and demand compliance by industries to environmental protection laws and standards.

To understand wastewater management standards, the question ‘Does the institution have wastewater discharge standards?’ was raised for 42 respondents, of which 85.7% of industries were using different mechanisms or approaches to monitor, evaluate, and control the wastewater discharged to meet the standards. The remaining seven of the surveyed industries do not have a mechanism. When it comes to wastewater discharges, 88% of industries replied that they were using the wastewater discharge standards before releasing the wastewater into the environment, whereas 9.5% of respondents disagreed with the presence of standards for the discharge of wastewater. In actual context and from field visit observation, the standards were not in place, not applied, and not observed in all surveyed industries. Findings also show that the horizontal and vertical relationships among major institutions were poor, and they do not even have shared working platforms. Duplications of roles and responsibilities among the actors have created role confusion among the key departments working in the sector. They can sometimes work separately and use the same resources and budgets for the same activities. In addition, there are no clear roles and responsibilities for urban wastewater management and urban wastewater agriculture that carry out specific activities with adequately organized institutional manpower in Ethiopia.

Out of the surveyed participants, the public and regulatory bodies agreed that the institutional reforms and reorganization of government departments significantly affect the roles and responsibilities of regulatory bodies. Even if institutional reforms and reorganization of government departments could be good and support sustainable development, when they are done too often, they adversely affect the performance of institutions and bring institutional instability. In the last few years, the federal government reorganized ministries too often. Because of the restructuring, the ministries spent a lot of time in interval reorganization and staffing. Because of the restructuring, experts were displaced from their positions. These changes which happened in a short interval adversely affected the working environment, and the interaction between professionals and other stakeholders. It could have slowed productivity. As a result of all these, most institutions working in the environment and water sectors have been performing more poorly than expected.

The gaps created due to structural changes and institutional instabilities not only reduce the effectiveness of governmental departments in providing environmental protection services but also the commitment of professionals to undertake their tasks. These contribute to the creation of open space for polluters to work as usual without worrying about the impact of wastewater discharged, continuing to drain their untreated wastewater into the environment. The government should assess the benefits and challenges of short-term institutional reforms to increase institutional stability and accountability. In sum, information gathered from different sources, particularly from the industrial side, worryingly reveals that institutional instability and high levels of staff turnover adversely impact the abilities of government departments to carry out their environmental protection functions.

Findings from the study show that institutional and sectorial cooperation within and across regulatory organizations was weak. In other words, there has not been strong sectorial cooperation within or across sectors or departments that could support the desired objectives of protecting the environment and human health. As a result, it is possible to say that vertical and horizontal cooperation and collaboration among the major regulatory bodies remain substandard. Bringing sustainable urban agriculture requires the sharing of objectives, knowledge, and resources among such government departments as the MoI, MoWE, Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), MoILLs, Federal EPA, and Regional or Woreda Environmental Protection Bureaus (EPPBs).

Institutional transparency will enhance communications among stakeholders, clients, governmental bodies, and communities to work together. However, findings from FGD and KII (communities) show that most of the surveyed industries were not open to communities, stakeholders, and citizens. The industry's willingness to share the wastewater treatment system was difficult. Access to official decisions, agendas, and access to observe the treatment systems and their institutional obligations was not good. The choice of 81% of respondents was yes (agreed) and the remaining 9.5% disagreed with the presence of transparency, while 9.5% (Addis Ababa) of respondents said that they do not have enough information on it. In fact, each entity works independently with little cooperation, communication, and collaboration taking place among these institutions. The surveyed industries, regulatory bodies, and the community need to see the benefits of collaborating, communicating, and protecting the environment and human health which also helps urban agriculture sustainability. There are guidelines and manuals that help to support the implementation of water bodies' protection. However, due to poor coordination, collaboration, and partnerships among implementers, stakeholders, and communities, the environment is not well protected (Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia MoWE 2018; Eriksson & Sigvant 2019).

Findings from FGDs (senior experts) and KIIs (Industrial CEOs and Directors) show they have difficulties building treatment plants and regularly treating effluents. That is why the majority of the existing plants discharge their wastewater into the water bodies without proper treatment and fulfilling the required standards. Information gathered from different sources reveals that almost all industries did not treat the effluents well enough (Yimer et al. 2020). There are regulatory bodies that have duties to monitor and control wastewater management and enforce the laws but due to weak accountability and lack of awareness, they were not working according to the rules and regulations (Ruffeis et al. 2010). In the study areas, the absence of a common treatment plant, lack of sufficient funds, poor motivations, inaccessibility of chemicals and reagents, lack of hard currency, lack of accessories, and high treatment costs of the conventional treatment systems affect the capacity of industries to treat their wastewater. Similarly, poor wastewater management infrastructures, including poor sewerage lines, and a rapid increase in wastewater volumes that exceed the current capacities of the treatment plants, result in a poor percentage of wastewater undergoing primary or secondary treatment. Experience shows that common treatment plants should enable the environment to be protected. Studies also indicate that the common treatment systems enable consistent removal of pollutants from the systems (Padalkar & Kumar 2018).

According to FGDs (CEO) and KIIs (KI-08), the centralized treatment facilities will ensure wastewater treatment. Hence there is better control over pollution, and it also helps to save capital and operating costs of the treatment plant under the difficulties of land availability for individual industries, which is the best option to protect the environment from pollution. For instance, in Modjo town, there are a total of 13 tanneries trying to treat the wastewater separately; unfortunately, they cannot treat it well and properly. To solve the problem, if there is a common treatment facility, it could responsibly collect and properly treat their wastes with uniform methods. Lack of awareness, capital, professionals, poor control of regulatory bodies, and poor law enforcement are the factors undermining accountability, encouraging the industries not to apply industrial wastewater management systems. They are not accountable for the environment, which is the centre of good governance, and are not environmentally responsible, thinking that environmental responsibility is a government duty, particularly the local authority (Requejo-Castro et al. 2017). The government also has the responsibility and ability to create and enforce environmental legislation (Fox 2015) to influence all other levels (individuals, communities, and industries) to control, treat, and reduce their effluent-causing environmental pollution.

Findings from the study (all KIIs-private sides) show that the financial support from the governmental side to incentivize industries (for public sectors) on wastewater treatment systems was limited or unsatisfactory, and will not be enough to treat their wastewater properly. They have difficulty obeying the laws and protecting the water bodies from pollution. The major reasons behind this are the complex nature of treatment systems that need huge capital, skilled professionals, and costly inputs, as well as poor motivation. Most of the potential pollutant industries in Addis Ababa and Modjo need support from donors like UNIDO, which promotes industrial development programmes that support industries working on poverty reduction and a sustainable environment. For the betterment of the environment and human health protection to secure food and achieve SDG6 goals, the government should work seriously to solve the financial constraints in wastewater treatment systems (KIIs-industries). This treatment process requires high capital, investments, advanced technologies, and professionals. Construction of a common treatment system might take huge capital and is not an easy task, but it minimizes the existing severe problems that have appeared in lands, surface waters, groundwater, livestock, and the lives of the communities. In summary, getting finance and providing support is the duty of the government to construct advanced treatment systems for urban and industrial wastewater treatment plants through loans and other mechanisms.

The findings show that regulatory bodies might violate their duties and tasks mandated by the proclamation. With the inadequate legal framework and unclear institutional responsibilities, the necessary wastewater management and environmental protection were not in place. According to KIIs and FGDs, the regulatory bodies are not in a position to enforce or punish those who violate or discharge untreated wastewater into the environment. The EPA is a responsible regulatory body and has been taking measures and creating and enforcing laws designed to protect the environment and human health. The findings of this case study show that there is limited practice of endorsed principles and environmental laws, regulations, and guidelines. To improve environmental regulation awareness and enforcement, access to separate courts such as environmental courts is crucial for environmental protection. However, in Ethiopia, access to environmental justice and environmental dispute resolution is weak to protect human health and the environment; this is because specialized Environmental Courts like the operationally independent court is needed for effective legal means to accomplish important tasks, such as those for the EPA, and the challenge of carrying out the mandated tasks. This might be due to poor implementation of environmental laws, rights, and accountability in the sector. The House of Peoples Representatives has the mandate to monitor and control the regulatory bodies because they are selected and represented by the communities to serve them. They have not been carrying out their function of oversight nor listening to the people who have been affected by the pollution. Almost all the surveyed regulatory bodies push their responsibilities to others. They evade accountability. The absence of systems that are transparent contributes to the evasion of responsibility by the regulatory organs. Broadly speaking there are problems with respect to enforceability and responsibility in environmental laws and policies. The regulatory body, though the lead government agency with respect to environmental protection, is more of a laggard. As a result, there are no credible efforts to prevent the pollution of water bodies.

To understand the reasons why the private sector did not treat the wastewater before discharging it into the environment or why they violated the environmental laws, the question ‘What do you think about the problem of the industries not obeying the proper industrial wastewater management systems?’ was asked. Most of the respondents replied that it might be mainly due to lack of awareness, capital, professionals, accountability, polluters pay principles not applied, poor control of regulatory bodies, and poor law enforcement. Most of the surveyed industries have limited capacity to treat their wastewater well and are not working in an environmentally friendly manner (Yimer et al. 2020). It is important to note here that applying environmental laws should not be construed as being against industries and development. Rather environmental protection more broadly, and the protection of water resources greatly contribute to sustainable development. Hence the government has the responsibility to push industries to comply with environmental laws and standards. Summing up, manufacturing industries have a vital role in economic development. They create tens of thousands of jobs and bring foreign currency. However, they must treat their wastewater properly with standards or limits set by the world health organization or nationally within Ethiopia. So, the government of Ethiopia needs to see this as a sustainability issue and to apply environmental protection principles, including the precautionary, prevention, polluters pay, integration, and public participation principles. Applying these principles will protect water bodies and environmental protection activities to secure the urban agriculture-related impacts.

There are limited community engagement platforms for environmental problems and each of those in practice does not properly engage the community to address or resolve their concerns and complaints. Communities in the upstream catchment of the Awash Basin do not have any way to participate in planning, evaluating, and monitoring the environment. They did not have communication channels to interact with regulatory bodies and polluters. They heard even the little information they knew from the media. For instance, one of the possible tasks (industries or private sectors, corporate responsibility) is community engagement and mobilization. Due to a lack of awareness, farmers were using the polluted river water or wastewater for washing their hands, feet, and faces, and also for irrigation uses. Similarly, children are using the river for swimming because they are not aware of the health risks (Antwi-Agyei et al. 2016). Failure to have community mobilization and engagement makes them passive participants in wastewater management. The vulnerable communities (FGD-05) have been raising issues in every option and possibility like meetings, conferences, public discussions, and the like with government officials about the pollution of the rivers and the responsibilities of the government in ensuring environmental protection. The river deterioration and situation have been there since 1991. Nonetheless, the regulatory bodies are not protecting the environment. The communities think that this can be due to local officials (Woreda officials) being unaware of the real problem, the impact on humans and the environment, and the existing chain of corruption within industries.

The EIA proclamation 299/2002 makes clear provisions for public participation in the environmental impact assessment process. However, public participation and practice were weak. The community should observe the existing wastewater management work and practices of the neighbouring industries, which could help them to understand what is going on in each industry and enable them to work together. A teacher (FGD-01) who participated in FGD in Allula Kebele recommends that the communities discuss with industries, not hate industries; they should participate in monitoring, and visiting industries as well. Regarding transparency and community involvement, most key informants including KII-D02, KII-EM08, and others agreed that industries should open their doors to the neighbouring communities and engage in awareness creation. Industries should open the treatment systems for others, including experts, officials, and community representatives without bureaucratic hurdles and should work to develop trust which is essential to improve accountability.

The information obtained from KIIs and FGDs mainly emphasized that the political will and commitment from both federal and regional governments were lacking sufficient support and control. Moreover, practices with respect to the protection of the environment are full of irregularities pushing polluting industries and regulators toward corrupt practices. Regarding political will and commitment and political accountability the federal government worries about policy-related issues whereas the regional or local entities are very close to private sectors, industries, and communities and know well the ongoing activities. Most of the time, the governmental bodies make regulations and policies whereas the regional and local authorities monitor operational activities. Regarding wastewater management, most of the federal and regional governments knew very well what was going on in the industrial sectors. However, they did not undertake actions or measures to save the environment from pollution because of the absence of a well-established water pollution monitoring system (Alemayehu 2006). Governmental institutions lack strong leadership, commitment, and support at national and regional levels, and weak judicial accountability (Fox 2015) is a problem. Executive leaders' knowledge of wastewater issues is needed to allocate required resources to the sector, and to act as project champions and sponsors.

The obtained data from the regulatory bodies and industry interviews confirmed that the environmental policy implementation has difficulties including lack of awareness, ignorance, and enforcement of the law. Environmental standards, including the ambient and wastewater quality standards, are not well recognized by all the major sectors and have not been put in place. There has been a standard developed by the EPA to compare/contrast the quality of ambient water bodies but has not been ratified yet. These environmental standards such as the ambient water and wastewater quality were not endorsed and applied by relevant actors in the environment and water, and hydrology sectors. This ambient guideline was prepared under the ecological sustainable industrial development project US/ETH/99/068/Ethiopia in 2011. It has not yet been approved by the government. Even though stakeholders did not know about it, it needs endorsement. To protect the environment, we need to have well-known and approved wastewater or ambient water quality standards. Introducing the existing partly final version of ambient water quality standards might be a part of the implementation of the policy. However, the existing standard is not yet a working tool. Due to poor decision-making, the standards were not approved to protect the pollution nationally as well as basin-wide.

The wastewater released from industries pollutes stream and river waters in the Addis Ababa, Modjo, and Akaki catchments. Accordingly, the water quality of these sources has become very poor even for agricultural purposes. The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE 1995) states that all persons have the right to a clean and healthy environment, and the government has a duty to ensure this as far as resources permit. The roles and responsibilities of fulfilling this have been delegated to water, health and related sector ministries, authorities, and bureaus at federal and regional levels through policies and proclamations. Even though these entities have been functioning to this effect, the monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems have been weak to less or ineffective in meeting the goal. The findings of this study show that weak accountability, responsibility, enforcement, and commitment, partly resulting from overlap and duplication of roles and responsibilities, stand as major obstacles.

Community participation and engagement in planning, monitoring, control, and mitigation activities were non-existent. Information dissemination and awareness creation activities need improvement. The existing wastewater collection infrastructures and conventional treatment systems lack skilled professionals, chemicals and reagents, accessories, and hard currency affecting the operation of the wastewater management systems. The ministries and respective authorities were not providing environmentally responsible services and educational programmes, including capacitating experts through short- or long-term training, awareness creation, or other incentives. Most of the actors' horizontal and vertical relationships are not working properly. Frequent institutional and structural reforms and adjustments have significantly affected institutional performance. The study also found that the collaboration, cooperation, and partnerships among the major actors were not well-formulated and regulated, and did not use information or data exchange, experience sharing, and evaluation platforms. However, within these limitations, the study also found that some accountability measures are improving the quality of relationships between the stakeholders in service delivery arrangements resulting in some positive outcomes. However, more must be done by these government organizations, development partners, citizens, and the private sector to strengthen and initiate new measures to resolve or mitigate the problems of wastewater management.

To help reduce or mitigate the challenges and problems of wastewater management and agricultural use of wastewater in the studied and comparable communities in Ethiopia, there must be a concerted effort. What is more, results are expected to be gradual because the problems are widespread and deep-seated having to do with lack of law enforcement, lack of some legal provisions and standards, and the overall economic capacity of the country to employ high-tech water treatment plants and related technologies. Overall, the following three major categories of actors are expected to achieve some results if they work with commitment, harmony, and in concert.

Government institutions need to do the following:

• Laws and regulations set to protect water bodies must be implemented by the regulatory authorities regularly and indiscriminately to protect and keep water bodies safe and utilizable.

• These regulatory laws need to apply to households, institutions, business enterprises, or industries through both positive and negative incentives such that when the environment is safeguarded, the health of the water bodies and residents is, and farmers can use less toxic, less polluted, or unpolluted water.

• Create rules and guidelines for managing urban wastewater used in agriculture, and use an integrated approach to managing water resources, including regulating the location of potentially water-polluting industries and public establishments that release huge wastewater.

• Strengthen the awareness and information of residents in both sewered and unsewered sections of the city and the surrounding communities upstream to better manage their solid and liquid wastes rather than releasing these onto surfaces, into streams, rivers, and water bodies. In addition to enforcing the regulation, and perhaps before this, strengthen the awareness of pollutant-releasing establishments so that these can better understand the negative effects of unmanaged/untreated wastewater on environmental and human health.

• Introduce or adopt standards for treating and releasing wastewater for companies, and others currently polluting the environment. Support these organizations technically, administratively and finance-wise to expand, scale up or build new water treatment plants where there are none, and work to create role models through reward mechanisms.

• By raising the consciousness and participation of the consumers/the public, try to create a core of responsible citizenry who can somehow influence water bodies polluting establishments through choice of products and services from the environmentally friendly ones and reporting those who pollute or misuse the environment.

• Support and encourage regular and social media to create environmental activists and groups to speak for and defend the ecosystem.

• Provide technical training and theoretical lessons for wastewater farmers on protective measures while contacting dangerously polluted water, or how they could avoid making use of such water say by providing additional livelihood opportunities so that farmers may have to depend less on wastewater agriculture for their living.

Industrial owners or the private sector need to:

• Discharge their corporate social responsibilities by releasing treated wastewater properly in such a way that their profit maximization objective is not seriously compromised.

• Create or make use of existing associations and platforms to forge a common understanding of the legal requirements and moral obligation of the environment such that those secretly working to take advantage of this for undue financial gains are internally regulated and corrected or submitted to government regulatory organs when this fails.

• Work closely with the government as their allies and facilitator and not only regulator such that the private sector can get the most support from government and government development partners. This can be through training, facilitating loans, developing, and trying standards and making use of MIS to better understand and decide about their water use efficiency, treatment, and release of wastewater, etc.

• Provide such support as some extension and input support to communities farming around or downstream their firms or companies as a gesture of corporate social responsibility and sharing or spreading potential risk in collaboration with government offices such as urban agriculture and food security.

• Create a genuine, supportive, and constructive culture of communication and relationships with these communities based on the principle of cooperation, mutual benefit, and prosperity that can also be relied on when misunderstandings and conflicts may crop up.

The communities in the study areas and beyond

• Need to properly make use of exiting solid waste collection systems instituted by the local administration.

• Need to be able to properly manage sewers, and refrain from releasing sludge and related wastes into stream and river courses.

• Need to educate, and when this does not work, report those who pollute the environment and water bodies to the responsible Kebele regulators, the media, and other regulatory agencies, and eventually take cases even to district courts, also seeking CSO support legal pursuit.

In sum, we need to have environmentally responsible individuals, communities, industries, local authorities, community leaders, and governments work in cooperation and harmony. Further research on urban wastewater reuse, urban wastewater guidelines preparation, potential sources of pollution, effectiveness, and efficiency of wastewater treatment plants, monitoring of water pollution, benefits, and costs of urban agriculture is needed. It is crucial to practice accountability mechanisms focussing on institutional, economic, social, and environmental/ecological objectives by strengthening the accountability systems and relationships in the research areas and Ethiopia at large.

This paper has been produced as a collaboration between the Accountability for water action and research programme funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and managed by the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR), supported by Water Witness International, KEWASNET and Shadidi Wa Maji. The authors are grateful for the financial contributions of institutions and the Hewlett Foundation, the original funder of this fellowship programme. We are also grateful to the communities of the research sites, the leadership, and staff of the industries we visited, and the government personnel we approached for data collection who gave us their precious time and valuable data that enabled us to produce this report.

All relevant data are included in the paper or its Supplementary Information.

The authors declare there is no conflict.