Car-Wash Business In Ethiopia

In an extremely warm and humid weather, life would evidently be a bit hard. Usually, people living in such places would have their air conditioners installed.



However, it will not be easy for those who cannot afford air conditioners. In Gambella – a town in southwestern Ethiopia – only a few hotels and guest houses can provide facilities of the sort in the baking hot town. However, the one thing that is available across the board is water. Parenthetically, people in the area are used to taking cold showers several times a day. For the most part, Gambella does not supply water through pipelines and still lacks ample reservoirs and tankers and a satisfactory distribution mechanism.



This does not mean that Gambella lacks the supply. In fact, it has one of the largest rivers in the country: Baro River. It is a place where a lot of people from the surrounding areas bathe. In addition, there is also car-wash (scrubbing), which nowadays is becoming a thriving business for the local youth. “The river is very important for us. It is where we clean ourselves and also make a living out of it,” Bereket Kejela, one of the youths who washes cars, says. Ever since the civil war in South Sudan broke out, the region has seen the highest influx of refugees and because of that several cars come to the town on humanitarian missions. More importantly, the region’s fertile surroundings attract investors who come to the town driving their truck and SUVs on the muddy and dusty roads. “We have a very good business because there are many cars arriving here,” Bereket says.



These days, car-wash is becoming a booming business not just in Gambella but also in Addis Ababa. With car sales thriving at an unprecedented rate, the car-wash business is also taking its fair share of the bonanza. A while back, young boys, with their yellow jerry cans filled with water used to wash cars in different parts of the town in a disorganized manner. According to Mulatu Getnet, who used to wash cars at a Total gas station in Addis Ababa, the current trend has developed mainly because of one thing, which is entrepreneurship. In addition to that, the fact that car owners nowadays do not what to wash their cars on their own, has led the young boys to tap into the business.



Previously, cars had to be taken either to a gas station or to the young boys to be cleaned. “The way the young boys did it was in an irregular manner. However, the gas stations delivered a relatively professional service and customers are for the most part satisfied,” he said. However, there are other things that customers demand. Apart from basic interior and exterior washing, some technical procedures are applied such as draining of auto fluids. “Many customers I had back then hardly brought me their cars to have it washed. They usually do it at their homes themselves. Family members, including children, guards and servants, used to wash cars of the owners,” he said.



Yonas Seifu grew up cleaning his parents’ cars. It was a regular weekend job for my younger brother and myself when we were kids, he says. Yonas remembers that washing cars was fun as well as tiring. “It became fun when we were given financial rewards. We would by soft drinks and candies,” he says. Yonas believes that it helps children at home to build a good work ethic.



However, Mulatu has another concern, which is related to polluting the environment. “Auto fluids such as oils, antifreeze, sprays and transmission fluids can be drained and emitted from a car at any time during washing. So, that certain area should be kept with properly built drainage system to keep the surrounding area clean,” he says. Furthermore, he pointed out that some failures in the electro-mechanical parts of the automobile are directly related to poor cleaning services and sometimes due to stolen parts. “I had some customers who were complaining about these problems. Some, in fact, had not been aware of the mischievous deeds of their mechanics at the garage,” he said.



Unlike many of the opinions stated above, Biniyam Bogale, 22, a scrubber explained why the car-wash service is booming in the city. “I don’t see any of the problems since we are known well by our customers and the local administration,” he said. Over the past four months, Biniyam and his friends have been able to manage a car-wash service named Papiyo. Located in Haya Hulet area, Papiyo has been contending with several car wash services on the street. According to Biniyam, they were unemployed youth with some having dropped out of school. After receiving loans from the small and micro enterprises department at their kebele in Bole Sub-city, they set up their car-wash business a few meters off the main road. “We are doing well though we need more help and money to construct a proper facility,” Binyam said. According to him, they give a full cleaning service in their small car-wash establishment. Although they have some vital equipment like a hose, spray guns, soap and brushes they have little knowledge on how to manage other services related to transmission fluids and filtering and refilling lubes. Nevertheless, Biniyam does not see it as a big setback. Rather, he counts on some of his friends who have obtained experience in a garage before. “That's not a problem. We can do it if they [the customers] bring it [the lube],” he says.



Just a few gates down the road, Babure, another car wash service has opened its doors for customers. They are also a group of youngsters in charge of the service. In comparison with Papiyo these young men have wheel repair along with the car wash. Moreover, they confidently say that they are adept at auto-interior cleaning and maintenance. “The business is pretty encouraging. Though our business is still at an early stage, we have a considerable number of dependable customers,” Abdi, one of the members of the group, says. With a relatively better space and bay built inside the muddy compound, Abdi was cleaning a van parked on the bay. Having no protective gear, including shades, the shirtless Abdi was pouring water on the van’s chassis with a hose from under the bay.



“My job has never affected my health over the past few years,” Abdi says. Unlike him, Biniyam profoundly talked about the impact his job would have on his health. “I sometimes have back pains and recurring headaches,” he said. Nevertheless, he will never think of quitting unless there is another job that earns him more than what he is earning today. He now earns 50-70 birr from each car and washes 20-40 cars per day.



Studies conducted in the US and other developed countries reveal that car-wash has its severe impact on health due to some hazardous substances leaking or coming out of the automobile. In 2012, the Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry published a review of hydrofluoric acid and its use in the car wash industry. According to the review, hydrofluoric acid is a common ingredient of car wash as a cleaning solution mainly because it is highly effective and relatively inexpensive. However, it remains a very caustic and a highly toxic substance due to hazards associated with the storage, use and exposure, the review states. In fact, small car wash services may not use it as a main agent for cleaning purpose but they can be exposed for it and other toxic substances through breathing and physical contact, physicians warn, and more importantly it can pollute the surrounding.



With regard to its environmental impact, car-wash has always been controversial as many environmental activists criticize the practice. Very few people realize that washing cars in driveways is one of the most environmentally un-friendly chores that can be done around the house. Unlike household waste, water that enters sewers or septic systems and undergoes treatment before it is discharged into the environment, car-wash waste goes into rivers, streams, creeks and wetlands where it poisons aquatic life and destroys other ecosystem. By and large, the water is contaminated with gasoline, oil and residues from exhaust fumes – as well as the harsh detergents being used for the washing itself, Earth Talk e-magazine, a publication that advocates environmental issues worldwide, wrote. It pushes people to lean towards commercial car wash services suggesting that car wash services use less than half the water used by home car-washing.



Addis Ababa has for long offered automatic car-wash services in several gas stations and in garages named “lavaggio”. Yet, the new trend appears to be phenomenal. “We have a number of foreign and local customers and the service is functioning in a tremendous manner,” Gemechu Adane, an employee at a professional car-wash service, says. Having been in the business for some eight years, he has witnessed that people give less attention to taking care of their cars. “I have seen more care for automobiles from foreigners who usually do things professionally,” he says. However, there are also a lot of Ethiopians who properly care for their cars. Nonetheless, for drivers like Dawit, the value of having one’s car washed at a car-wash is that it saves time and is simple. “I frequent the car wash services. They save me a lot of time,” he said.



The business of car-wash has a massive potential for entrepreneurship and the service seems to be earing a significant amount of money for the youngsters while gaining them acceptance from the community.