ETHIOPIA-ECONOMY: Wealth and Health from Water

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Mar 7 1996 (IPS) - Royalty and foreign dignitaries turned Ambo, 125 km west of the Ethiopian capital, into a resort town, seeking its mineral water which, they were convinced, had healing powers.

“Historical accounts abound about important personages who, upon recommendations by the medics of the day, went to Ambo to bathe in the sparkling and refreshing mineral water and to use it as medicinal nourishment for seven to 14 days,” recalls Gezaye Ambaye, an Ethiopian who works with a water-marketing firm here.

Over the past half a century, the water has been studied by international organisations, foremost among them the Pasteur Institute of France. Its curative qualities have been proven and certified by the Central Laboratory and Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Health of Ethiopia, according to Ambaye.

“Careful studies made with regard to the nature and content of the mineral water have revealed its curative qualities,” says Ambaye, employed by the Nairobi-based company Urtec Ltd, one of several African firms now marketing the water en masse.

His company imports the water, known as Ambo, and bottles it at its modern factory that has the capacity to produce 15,000 bottles per hour.

Urtec spent the whole of last year promoting its product and began selling it in Kenya this year. Its latest marketing report shows that an average of 120 bottles of Ambo are drunk daily in one hotel alone in sun-scorched Mombasa, 500 km east of the capital Nairobi.

In Nairobi, an average of 700 bottles of the water are used in each hotel every month, according to the report.

However, the unscrupulous have tried to cash in on its success: last year water presented as spring water was found to be bottled tap water.

The company’s eyes are now on Uganda and Rwanda where, apart from the local consumers, there is a sizable number of U.N. officials with money to spend. “We already have people on the ground in Uganda and in Rwanda,” says an official at Urtec. “We are waiting for feedback from them”.

Fetched from a small spring in the Ethiopian mountains, which Ambaye says is now open to the public for a small fee, the sparkling mineral water is rich in minerals like sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron and manganese.

“I think Ambo is gradually gaining ground here,” says an official at the N.B. Agencies Wine store here. “People buy it mainly for mixing their drinks, although some are not used to the salty taste.”

However, the average Kenyan finds Ambo too expensive. “They complain that they can’t afford 50 shillings (90 cents) for a 750- ml-bottle of mineral water. It is too expensive for them,” says a shop assistant at a leading supermarket here.