Traditionally, Ethiopia is referred the water tower of Africa. Indeed it has numerous water resources that fall in the categories surface and underground water. Summer and Belg rains add to the deposit.
But with regard to effectively utilizing the resources, it lags behind many African countries due to lack of technology, finance and knowhow.
The country also has law capacity in retaining water sources. As a result, during the rainy season it suffers inundation which inflicts a heavy damage on humans and property.
Asmamaw kume was former Water Shade Management Directorate Director in the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electric. He has a wealth of experience in this regard.
As to him, Ethiopia obtains abundant water in the summer season but due to weak retaining capacity it does not effectively utilize the resources. Rather the water lays waste. Unless the nation upgrade its retaining capacity utilizing the resource both for modern agriculture and industry things will not be good.
Currently, countries measure their respective wealth by the number of dams they built both for power generation and expansion of irrigation.
Ethiopia annually gets almost 1 trillion meter cube water from rain which necessitates building human capacity and importing technology to put into effective use.
Some parts of the country receive excessive water in summer season. Contrary to this, others are highly prone to drought. For example, in some south western pocket areas, the average rain distribution raises up to over 2,000 millimeter. On the other hand, in the north eastern Afar state’s lowlands and south eastern Ogaden plains rains below 250 millimeter.
When the rate of rain decreases in the north eastern parts, it will also rump down in the south eastern areas.
During summer, the rain distribution increases and the nation receives up to 70-80 percent of rain water.
In winter season, the Awash valley critically suffers from drought. Again it gets hit by flood during summer. Hence, to close the imbalance constructing dams in that area should be taken as a way out. This enables to expand irrigation and regulate the water flow.
During summer season, when the waters of rivers Baro, Acobo and Gilo, among others, overflow, in the south western part, they affect farmlands in the lower stream areas.
The amount of the nation’s water resource varies from place to place. The south western state is rich in this regard, while the central and southern part suffers from water shortage. The population distribution also varies. Population pressure in the central part of the country is high, while the western part of the country is sparsely populated.
The growing of urbanization, coupled with industrialization, necessitates the high demand of water for various purposes such as drinking, sanitation, industry and the like. Therefore, knowing the available water sources is essential.
Currently, gauging is the most applied way of measuring the amount of water resources, but it is not sufficient and viable. Therefore, it is preferable to measure the water sources through planning watershed because it indicates more sources.
To transform the rain-fed agriculture into the modern one, expanding irrigation through time is vital.
To raise agricultural productivity in the traditional small-scale farming, the government recommends farmers to utilize agricultural inputs mostly inorganic fertilizers.
On the other hand, raising productivity through expanding farmlands is not sustainable. It is environmentally unhealthy.
The utilization of chemical fertilizers also compromise the health of water bodies and such situation makes the matter a bit complicated.
The expansion of irrigation farms, which use excess inputs, also returns the endeavor for harvesting clean water, back to square one.
Asked whether there is a way out for this trade off, Asmamaw said that indeed inorganic fertilizers threatens the water bodies which risk human and animal as well as plant life.Therefore, to mitigate the problem, deploying environmentally friendly approach such as planting trees as well as grasses that are friendly to the ecosystem in the banks of the rivers is vital. This reduces the speed of flood to rivers and absorbs chemicals washed out from farms.
Developed countries have the mechanism and sufficient technologies to protect water bodies from pollution but our country is left with only one options. Soil and water conservation is one approach to deal with the matter.
Part of the upper watershed is critically damaged by erosion due to rapid flow of water and farming. Hence to reduce the amount of the washed soil, rehabilitation work is essential, which in turn, helps to raise land productivity.
While the public way of living is changing due to urbanization, the quest for quality water will become a burning issue to all. The rivers crossing the capital have no value either for human, animals or plants because they are 100 percent polluted.
Therefore, treating waste liquids, strengthening watershed management and cultivating river banks by the concerted effort of stakeholders is essential.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 1 September 2019
BY ABEBE WOLDE GIORGIS
