The Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) announced this week that it enabled 190 towns and villages across the country get mobile telephone service over the past six months. According to ENA, speaking at meeting that brought together federal and regional transport and communication offices held in Jimma town, ETC corporate communication manager, Abdurahim Ahmed, said that the stated number of towns and villages, in seven regional states, got the service at the cost of more than 1.1 billion birr.

The towns and villages are among the 237 towns and villages the corporation listed to get access to mobile telephone service during the current budget year. The manager said that the Corporation has enabled more than 608,700 new subscribers, and got access to mobile telephone service during the past six months. Expansion of mobile telephone lines, with the capacity to serve over 140,000 subscribers, has been carried out in the stated locations, Abdurahim said. Close to 662,000 clients got mobile, fixed line telephone or internet services, while 12 schools have been interlinked via internet, he added.

State collects over 4mln quintals of spices

The South Ethiopia Peoples' State Agriculture and Rural Development Bureau announced that more than 4.2 million quintals of spices have been collected from various zones and woredas of the State during the past half year. ENA reported that the stated volume of spices was collected from more than 67,000 hectares of land developed in the state, the bureau public relations department head, Tesfaye Yigezu, said. As the demand for spices is increasing, farmers in the state are making efforts to increase their spice production, he said. Meanwhile, more than three million spice seedlings have been readied to be transplanted during the current year, the head said. Moreover, the head said that more than 374,000 quintals of pepper, developed on 46,000 hectares of land, has been supplied to the market over the past six months.

Sidamo coffee secures trademark certificate

The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) announced that Ethiopia has received a certificate from the American government that confirms Ethiopia as the sole owner of the Sidamo coffee trademark. EIPO Director General, Getachew Mengiste, told journalists on Tuesday that Ethiopia was forced to wait for years to secure the certificate as the Starbucks and other organizations had objected its application to the US Patent and Trademark Office to trademark to receive the certificate to trade mark the Sidamo coffee.

However, the Director General said Ethiopia has finally secured the rights to the Sidamo coffee trademark via the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Last year, the Ethiopian government filed applications to trademark the coffee bean names Sidamo and Harar in US courts. As no one opposed Ethiopia's claims to get the Harar coffee name as its trademark, positive results are expected on the registration of the Harar coffee. The Director General said that EIPO has reached agreements with more than 70 international companies to use and promote the coffee specialty trademarks. Negotiations are under way to reach similar agreements with other companies, Getachew said and added that agreements have been reached with 47 local coffee exporters and three coffee grower and exporter unions.

Agency to set up 357 meteorological stations in five years

The National Metrological Agency announced plan to set up 357 meteorological stations at a cost of over 56 million birr in the coming five years. Agency’s international and public relations service head, Hailu Wedeneh, told ENA that the agency envisages installing automatic information gatherer, meteorology radar and establishing ozone control and air pollution control stations over the next five years. Some 56 million birr budget is needed to establish the stations and to install the instruments, the head said and added that the government and donors would provide the budget. The additional meteorological stations are of great value for the agriculture, water and health sectors, he said, adding that the establishment of the stations would help to provide useful metrological information to those engaged in several investment sectors in the country. The agency has so far established 903 meteorological information gathering stations. The would-be established stations are envisaged to cover different parts of the country. Meteorology in Ethiopia first attained its importance in aviation, and a small Meteorological unit was established in 1951 with in the Civil Aviation Department (now Civil Aviation Authority) to cater services solely for aeronautical purposes.

Minister says government working hard to overcome fluoride contamination

Minister of Water Resources said the Ethiopian government would pursue in its efforts of tackling fluoride contamination that is adversely affecting the health of people living in The Ethiopia Rift Valley area. Speaking at a national workshop organized to come up with solutions for the problem being caused by fluoride contamination, Minister of Water Resources Asfaw Dingamo said all concerned bodies should scale up efforts towards tackling the problem. Citing research conducted in the area, the Minister indicated that about 85 percent of the14 million people living in Ethiopia Rift Valley are exposed for high fluoride contamination. Urban potable water and sanitation service head with the Ministry, Yohannes Gebremedehin, on his part said that the Afar, Oromia, South Ethiopian Peoples and the Gambella States are exposed to high degree of flouride contamination. Researches indicated that the potable water in these states has reached to 0.4 to 36 mg per liter, which is a very high fluoride concentration. Over 40 percent of deep and shallow wells and springs in the rift valley have fluoride levels above the optimal WHO level of 1.5 mg/liter. The national steering committee established earlier to come up with solutions to tackle the problem has designed a strategy through which the problems being caused by high concentration of fluoride could be eliminated step by step.