Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Ethiopia
In Ethiopia, poverty is combined with plenty. Inequitable distribution of resources
stretches right down to the accessibility of water resources throughout the country.
Although the government plans to do more, water resource development, especially
groundwater development, is modest at best in Ethiopia. Initial estimates of the avail-
ability of groundwater have been low - the official figure stands at 2.6 BCM
12
of
available groundwater. However, such figures are nowgenerally accepted as inaccurate,
representing a mere fraction of the resource that is actually available.
In the last three years, expectations of the scope for groundwater development
have risen steeply. Increasingly groundwater is politically 'discovered' as a full com-
plement to the development of surface water. The 'discovery' of the groundwater
resource enables the country to unlock the agricultural potential of areas far away
from main rivers, including the Abbay / Blue Nile. In an area that often depends on
food aid, this development is of incredible importance. Taken together, the current
manifestations of various plans are very ambitious. Uncertainty remains with respect
to the resource and the availability of some of the assumed resources still needs to be
established.
The Ethiopian component of the research focuses on the Raya-Kobo valley, an
area with high groundwater potential within the Baro-Akobo basin, but also the scene
of the horrific 1984 famine. Research is on-going on poverty alleviation approaches
through safety net programs and economic growth through small-scale irrigation. In
the Raya-Kobo valley, the groundwater resource is now partly developed, and the
government plans to do more. Many of the constructed wells were not operational
for about 3 years, while some of the newly government-constructed wells are often
damaged by villagers. The project team had no idea why the villagers targeted these
wells. Investigations revealed that suspicions that private investors would use the wells
played a key role. In Ethiopia, people do not own their farmland. Instead, it belongs
to the state. In the region where the wells were being damaged, the government's plans
were not made clear to the communities in the study areas and this created fear and
anger among the population. Another development in groundwater irrigation in the
Raya-Kobo valleys is the emergence of young and more educated entrepreneurs, aptly
named “change agents,'' who are involved in small-scale irrigation by leasing land
from farmers (Kumsa 2011).
Among the twelve basins in Ethiopia, Baro-Akobo basin covers only 6.9 % of the
total area (76,102km
2
). It does, however, contain the second largest area irrigable land
(734,500ha), the second highest hydropower potential (48.1 X 10
9
kwh/yr), and has
the third highest amount of runoff (11.81 X 10
9
m
3)
(Selkhozpromexport 1990; Tams
1997). Despite its small size, it has very prominent and unique hydrological character-
istics. This basin is home to one of the few remaining high rainforests between 2000
and 3500 m altitude and more than 40 species of mammal wildlife (ETV Documen-
tary, March 2012). Moreover, the basin's trans-boundary nature and its importance to
South Sudan and other downstream countries give the basin considerable geopolitical
importance. This research is therefore aimed at addressing current and future water
development challenges by conducting applied groundwater hydrological research in
12
BCM: Billion Cubic Metres
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