The Blue Nile (Nile) Basin in Ethiopia covers eight sub-basins within three regional states covering some close to 200 thousand square kilometers of land and amounts to 20 percent of the country. According to Ethiopian Basin Development Authority, the Blue Nile Basin covers over 45 percent of Ethiopia’s surface water resource. Over 23 million people inhabit the basin and the basin covers around 40 percent of the country’s agricultural productivity.
According to a data from the Authority, the basin in Ethiopia contributes to over 63 percent of the water that flows in to Nile River and covers over 49 billion meter cube waters of the Nile River. This basin is a source of water for Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt for centuries. Due to its suitability for agriculture and animal grazing, the basin area is over exploited as a result of the traditional agriculture and overgrazing. Sadly, there were no recovery and conservation efforts to replace the affected areas so far.
In addition, this basin takes 39 percent share of the country’s animal resource and 34 percent of this basin is already used for agricultural purpose where over 526 thousand hectare is suitable for agricultural purpose. In this basin, annually over one billion tons of soils is eroded and on average, 200 tons of soil per hectare is eroding from the plowing land every year.
According to a document The Ethiopian Herald found from Office of National Council for the Coordination of Public Participation on the Construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) Project Management and Environmental Protection Coordination Office, conservation efforts were held during the past 40 years. But, according to the document, only 16 percent of the basin which needs recovery was restored during the past 40 years of conservation efforts.
According to the office, the population in the basin area is increasing from time to time and additional land is exploited for agricultural purposes. The topography of the Blue Nile Basin in Ethiopia where the water originates is mountainous. And due to continued population growth, the ecology and forest coverage of the area is continuously affected. Timely actions must be taken not only to stop the traditional practice that affects the ecology of the area, due to weather changes and the past effects, the basin needs strong recovery and conservation actions for the sustainability of the water flow of the river.
According to officials from the office, unless researched recovery mechanisms are applied to protect the ecology and forest coverage of the basin, in the long run, the water may be affected seriously. According to an environmental protection officer with the office, the basin needs strong intervention.
After the commencement of the construction of the GERD, to protect the dam from silt, Ethiopia gives due attention to conserve and recover the basin areas. But, experts in this regard argued that it needs paradigm shift in the implementation for success of the efforts. According to Senior Forest Ecologist, the recovery and conservation efforts of Ethiopia should be supported by scientific researches.
The National Council for the Coordination of Public Participation on the Construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam stated, citing researches that, the average annual rate of fertile soil erosion per hectare in the basin is 30.5 percent where a 13 years average silt of the basin exceeds 287.4 million. Since the ecology is eroded and the forest coverage of the basin destroyed, the water flow of the river is unregulated where in some seasons filled with dangerous flood carrying unnecessary silt while in some seasons, the water flow decreased. But, according to the experts, if the water origins and the basin area is protected, the water flow will become regular and sustainable.
With the current soil erosion and the level of silt, the age of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is believed to be 125 year, according to the office. But, if the country reduces 50 percent of the annual silt with conservation efforts, the age of the dam would be increased up to 275 years which also helps the country to secure 140 billion dollars per year, according to the office.
According to the office, the basin conservation, recovery and protection aims to protect the overall natural ecology and the forest coverage for the sustainability of the waters of the Nile. This conservation investment is not only to save the GERD from silt or not only for Ethiopia, it helps the downstream countries to get regulated sustainable water, Solomon Teka, Project Management, Environmental Protection and Art Affairs at the office said.
During his interview with The Ethiopian Herlad, Solomon stated that since 2013, Ethiopia started a month long annual land conservation and protection campaigns on January and February by mobilizing the total population in the Nile Basin areas. During these years, Solomon said, the people’s in-kind contribution to the conservation works on the Nile Basin area only can be estimated at over 121 billion birr.
Recently, annual discussion forums are prepared by the office with all stakeholders in the sector including the higher education institutions that operate in the basin to evaluate the conservation efforts of the country. “Though conservation efforts are good, they need strong integration of all stakeholders and should also be supported by scientific researches” Solomon argued.
“The office organized five evaluation sessions and during the recent session in Bahir Dar,” he said the stakeholders from all areas have agreed to apply “one plan one report for Nile Basin development” mainly to boost the synergy of the institutions for further results.
Though unsatisfactory, the area has also been reforested during the Green Legacy Initiative of Ethiopia’s massive plantation campaigns, he added. Ten Universities are available within the Nile Basin in Ethiopia, the director stated adding these universities have now become stakeholders in the conservation efforts of the basin mainly to support the effort with researches.
According to him, in addition to support the conservation and protection efforts with scientific researches, Debre Markos and Selalie Universities initiates a plan to plant a huge bamboo plant in the Abay valley to make the area a buffer zone, Solomon stated.
Solomon reiterated that “parallel to investing in conservation and recovery efforts, the Ministry of Water and Energy selects a red zone area in the basin to prohibit activities that affect the basin,” he stated. The red zone area covers around seven kilometers in the main basins.
Though, Ethiopia is investing its maximum capacity to preserve and conserve the ecology of the water origins of the Nile waters, the downstream countries show no interest to support the efforts. According to Solomon, if the downstream counties really have concern about future water shortage threat on Nile, they should invest on protecting the reforestation and environmental protection investments in the highlands of Ethiopia. If wisely managed and protected, the waters of this shared river are enough to all countries and can become a source of cooperation and integration, he noted. But, if the erosion, degradation and forest loss continues, the basin is in a real threat.
Project Management and Environmental Protection Senior Expert with the office, Kebede Woldemariam on his part told The Ethiopian Herald that since the Nile Basin is densely populated with mountainous topography, the natural ecology and forest of the area is seriously affected. “If any basin loses its natural ecology and forest coverage, it loses moisture” he said adding this directly affects the water origins of the basin and in the long run affects the water flow of the river.
Hence, Kebede stated, Ethiopia’s conservation and recovery efforts should strengthen and the downstream countries should support Ethiopia’s conservation and plantation efforts. According to Kebede, the downstream countries can support financially by sponsoring the seedling preparation, with researches and other technological supports.
He added that, if the downstream countries show an interest to support the efforts, the three countries joint efforts can bring fruitful outcome. In addition, he said, regional and international organizations can join conservation efforts of the basin. Through these mechanisms, the countries that shared the basin can secure their future water access, unless and otherwise, the basin is degrading and losing its nature from time to time.
Senior Forest Ecologist Yitebitu Moges (PhD) on his part stated that, not only Nile Basin, the Ethiopian River Basins are losing their natural ecology. To recover these affected areas, the greenery campaign and other conservation and reforestation efforts should be supported with well-planned and well researched system. Since 11 out of 12 Ethiopian River Basins are trans-boundary, all countries that receive waters from these rivers should give attention for the natural protection of the origins of these rivers, he added.
BY DARGIE KAHSAY
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD OCTOBER 8/2021
