Access to clean water is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to be achieved by 2030, and a priority on the environmental policy agenda in Ethiopia. A main challenge for clean water supply utilities is how to accommodate watershed protection and management costs. The type of land cover around water sources has a notable effect on the cleanliness of the water and hence on water purifying costs.
We analysed the effect of forest cover and non-forest land cover on water treatment chemical costs at the watershed and upstream at difference distances. We found that forest cover both at the watershed and upstream has a significant effect on the cost of water purifying chemicals. As distance between the water source and the forest increases, the contribution to the reduction of treatment cost declines.
