BY HAFTU GEBREZGABIHER
Ethiopia has allocated 600 million Birr for activities to prevent flooding from the overflow of some basins in the country to help the efforts of pre-flood prevention in 6 selected basins in 7 regions, according to the recent reports of the government.
Accordingly, the heavy rainfalls that caused damages on people and properties around basins last Ethiopian year prompted the government and pertinent institutions to conduct study and undertake flood prevention activities in the 6 basins found in 7 regions.
As an extension to the flood mitigation measures before the falloff of the main flooding season during the next rainy months of this summer, three projects are underway in the town of Dire Dawa which has been the most vulnerable to such natural disasters.
Mesfin Addisu, a disaster risk reduction expert in Dire Dawa, told the Amharic Daily-Addis Zemen that the city of Dire Dawa is one of the most vulnerable parts of the country due to its geographical location and topography. “Thus, various efforts are being made to reduce this risk.”
The expert said efforts have been made to alleviate the floods in the city, especially after the catastrophic floods in 2006. He said in the past, little attention was given to the floods in the cities, but currently there is a lot of risk reduction in the cities.
These include flood protection dams, flood mitigation activities including the construction of gabions, ditch sweepers and green development projects, among others. As a result, the risk of floods has largely been reduced and more work is being done in collaboration with the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Coordination Office, the National Meteorological Service and the National Disaster Risk Reduction Commission with the World Bank.
“Based on weather forecasts from the National Meteorological Service, we are warning the public, cooperating with the surrounding police stations and local administrations, and keeping the public alert and safe.”
As a result, there is a growing awareness of the need for the community to stay away from the area during floods. He also said that the state’s environmental protection and Haromaya University are conducting research to find a lasting solution to the problem.
According to him, a committee composed of the police, the disaster risk office and others is working to ensure that these communities are not affected by the floods. Research activities are underway to make the area greener in the long run.
Abdulhamid Rashid, a UIDP project engineer under the Office of the Manager on his part said the city administration is implementing projects on three rivers with the support of the World Bank and additional budget to alleviate the problem of flood risk in Dire Dawa.
The first project is being implemented with a budget of 45 million birr and in an area called Ashoa. The area has been a major source of flooding in the past. To solve this risk, he said the current project is the construction of a dam in the area with the budget allocated for the project accounts for 45 million birr and most of the projects have been completed.
He also said the second river that flows through Dire Dawa city is under construction with a budget of 21 million birr. The third project is the Melka River project. This project is being implemented with a budget of 12 million birr. Dire Dawa residents are at risk of flooding every winter. Experts say that this threat is currently being reduced through these projects.
It is recalled that more than 200 people were killed and more than 3,000 were displaced by floods in Dire Dawa in 2006.
Globally, a core group led by the Netherlands and France has prepared a “best practice document” on flood prevention, protection and mitigation to be presented to the Water Directors meeting in Athens in June 2003.
Flood events are a part of nature. They have existed and will continue to exist. As far as feasible, human interference into the processes of nature should be reversed, compensated and, in the future, prevented.
Human uses of floodplains should be adapted to the existing hazards. Appropriate instruments and measures should be developed for all flooding related problems: flooding, rising groundwater tables, sewage network disruption, erosion, mass deposition, landslides, ice flows, pollution, etc.
Flood strategy should cover the entire river basin area and promote the coordinated development and management of actions regarding water, land and related resources.
Mitigation and non-structural measures tend to be potentially more efficient and long term more sustainable solutions to water-related problems and should be enhanced, in particular to reduce the vulnerability of human beings and goods exposed to flood risk.
Considering the evolution and trends, the approach to natural hazards requires a change of paradigm. One must shift from defensive action against hazards to management of the risk and living with floods, bearing in mind that flood prevention should not be limited to flood events which occur often. It should also include rare events.
Transnational efforts should be intensified to restore rivers’ natural flood zones in order to reactivate the ability of natural wetlands and floodplains to retain water and alleviate flood impacts.
Structural measures (defense structures) will remain important elements and should primarily focus on the protection of human health and safety, and valuable goods and property. We will have to keep in mind that flood protection is never absolute, and may generate a false sense of security. The concept of residual risk, including potential failure or breach, should there-fore be taken into consideration.
Flood forecasting and warning is a prerequisite for successful mitigation of flood damage. Its effectiveness depends on the level of preparedness and correct response. Therefore, the responsible authorities should provide timely and reliable flood warning, flood forecasting and information.
A specific preparedness to alert, res-cue and safety measures should be planned and implemented at all levels, including the public, by maintaining regular basic information and continuous ongoing training actions. With appropriate and timely information, preparedness, everyone who may suffer from the consequences of flood events should be able to take -if possible- his/her own precautions and thus seriously limit flood damages.
Solidarity is essential; one should not pass on water management problems in one region to another. The appropriate strategy consists of three steps: retaining, storing and draining (first make every effort to retain rainfall at the spot, store excess water locally, only then let the water be discharged to the water-course). Flood prevention has also to be based on the precautionary principle.
A compensation system should support the victims of flood disasters to re-store their economic basis and their living conditions in due time. Insurance solutions at the private or public level or subsidence by state, which reinforce solidarity, should be furthered.
In flood-prone areas, preventive measures should be taken to reduce possible adverse effects of floods on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, such as water and soil pollution. It is necessary to distinguish between different kinds of flooding and the environmental conditions that contribute to the problem.
For instance, there are significant differences between on the one hand sudden flooding in upstream or headwater areas where mitigating risk involves a wide range of innovative small-scale solutions and on the other hand lowland flooding where warning periods and the duration of flood events are longer and large-scale measures have to be taken. Therefore, the effectiveness of the best practices described in part II depends on among other hydrological and environmental circumstances.
The Ethiopian Herald June 30/2021
