The aim of this study is to explore the potential linkages between access to water and sanitation and growth-related indicators in Ethiopia. The analysis is based on data from the 1999–2000 and 2004–05 Welfare Monitoring Surveys carried out by the Ethiopian Central Statistics Agency. These surveys contain information on the different types or sources of drinking water and sanitation to which households have access, including their distance (in kilometres) from their source of drinking water. The surveys also contain information on a range of growth-related welfare indicators, including work status (e.g. whether productively employed or not), health status (e.g. whether ill recently), school enrolment (whether registered to attend school), and indicators of whether households’ food and/or overall living standards have improved or deteriorated over the past year. Econometric analysis is used to examine the relationship between these two sets of variables, while controlling for other possible influences on growth and welfare. The paper is organised as follows. The remainder of this section describes some of the existing empirical evidence on the economic impacts of access to water and sanitation. Section 2 then outlines the main hypotheses which the analysis in the paper sets out to test, while Section 3 outlines the econometric methods used. Section 4 then provides some basic descriptive information regarding the measures of access to water and sanitation, and the growth-related welfare indicators, analysed in the study, by year and by region. Section 5 then presents the results of the econometric analysis. Finally, Section 6 summarises the main findings, and discusses implications of the analysis and potential next steps.