Staff Lounge, Students' Clinic and Bridge Inaugurated
Newly constructed staff lounge, students’ clinic and bridge were inaugurated on October 3, 2013 by President of ECSU, Dr Hailemichael Aberra.
The staff lounge according to the ECSU Training Facilities and Hospitality Service Head Sherif Muzeyin, can accommodate 350 to 400 people at a time only on its ground floor. The first floor of the one storey building also has the same capacity. The lounge also has a modern kitchen with electric cookers, boiler and efficient sewerage system. The building also has rooms that can be used for stores and offices.
Sherif Muzeyin says, “The previous lounge which was in the basement of a building has many problems. It was found below the sewerage tunnel and sewerage has to be carried out by manpower. It has no kitchen and food was brought from another kitchen which is located out of the building. The dining hall was too small and can only accommodate 160 people at a time although 800 employees of the university use the lounge. The new cafeteria solves all these problems.”
The new students’ clinic is the other project inaugurated on the same day. According to Defar Assefa, Head of the students’ Health Service, the old clinic which was sharing some rooms of a dormitory building was not the right place for a clinic. The rooms were fewer and less spacious. He said.
“The service the clinic provides will definitely be enhanced when it moves to the new building,”
“In 2002, when I first came to the university as a student the wooden bridge was there,” Head of the ECSU Procurement, Finance and Property Administration Department, Gerbehawaryat Geberemedhin recalls.
Geberhawaryat says the university had been requesting for budget for the construction of the bridge repeatedly for the responsibility was said to be of the Addis Ababa City Administration. But finally the city administration confirmed that it had no plan to build a road in the area the bridge is found. And the budget was allocated for the university to undertake the construction.
The wooden bridge has lots of problems. Students have to wait for their turn as it can’t carry a lot of people at a time. It was slippery whenever it rained. Disabled students who use wheel chairs can’t use it. Those who use crutches also had a difficult time crossing over the bridge. One of them, Temesgen Ayele, says, “It was slippery.It moved when many people walked on it and it was difficult for me to cross over it. I should be careful not to have my crutches stuck in between the planks.”
Tadele Yibeltal and Abraham Bedru are blind students; they also say that the new bridge is comfortable to them. Abraham said, “Once my leg was stuck in a hole in the wood and I was about to fall into the river.”
The bridge mainly serves those who go on foot but it can also help small vehicles cross over the river. According to Gebrehawaryat, there is a plan to cover the concrete bridge with asphalt. Only then can students using wheel chair can easily communicate with their class mates and friends in “Mehal Gibi.”
It was learnt that the lounge and the clinic were built at a cost of 14,205,807.72 birr, while the construction of the bridge costs 8,136,851.69 birr.