A comprehensive urban development requires effective utilization of water bodies, which is a basic component to realize a metropolitan city with sensuous beauty and promote the culture of stewardship for environment. This presupposes the rapid development of the construction industry in Ethiopia should operate mainstreaming the blue and green parts of nature and other geospatial elements.
Recently the government of Ethiopia has launched an ambitious river side project to develop and treat rivers of Addis Ababa mainly aiming at making Addis Ababa, meaning ‘New Flower’, live up to its name. Furthermore, upon completion the metropolis will be lucky to join scores of big cities in the world that enjoy a big reputation because of their well managed, clean and beautiful rivers.
The experience of various cities across the globe shows that beautifying cities through developing water bodies is vital for creating attractive cities. For instance, documents revealed that the reason for New York’s need to rethink the relationship with the Hudson River estuary isn’t only the need for public spaces and proximity to the water but the climate change effects that were severely felt due to Hurricane Sandy.
BIG’s design team won the 2014 international competition in search of a resilient solution to protect New York from the rising risks of floods due to climate change. Their solution incorporated a 12km “social infrastructure” and created space for activities and public spaces close to the river which is designed to double as a flood protection wall for future disasters.
Singapore is another city that uses its potential on developing Kallang River. The project results in a complete makeover of the way people can relate to the water. It could also bond the previously separated communities through the numerous activities the park provides today. Beside this the 2.7 Km canal’s destruction brought a lookout hill was built to serve as a viewpoint to the newly invited nature.
Moskva riverfront regeneration project by Project Meganom consortium 2015 at Moscow, Russia’s experience also show how water bodies can play a pivotal role in beautifying cities. Now, Moscow is a referent city for other megacities in the world due to its realized river project development.
The project also consists in the creation of public spaces along the river, developing tourism and water transportation through the location of ports linking to the neighborhoods.
Paris is also the other worlds densest cities, with an enormous protected by UNESCO World Heritage Site along the river Seine. Its riverbanks became an automobile corridor in the 60’s when its right banks became exclusively reserved for cars. And it wasn’t until 2001 that the city authorities decided to introduce a temporary way to bring back Parisians to the river where in the past activities flourished and people lived with the river.
The success of this reoccurring project has pushed through the opposition and in 2012 the city closed large parts of the dedicated to cars, banks and transformed them into permanent public spaces that are changing the relationship of Parisians to their river and increasing the value this world heritage site.
Mainly there are reasons why the above and other cities including Ethiopia should undergo on integrated development of rivers. The results are beyond astonishing and benefitting the natural, urban as well as the social environments.
Some documents showed many streams and rivers in cities have been forced to go underground in an attempt to remove storm water as quickly as possible from the urban environment.
This, however, often results in a flash flood during heavy rains as the underground systems become overloaded. By day lighting, the course of water can be retained, slowed down, and diverted, while at the same time reducing the risk of blockages at choke points. Therefore, it is possible to reduce flooding.
Apart from this, it will help to conserve groundwater and boost ecology. Hence, by depriving the water of sunlight, buried watercourses become ecological deserts, devoid of any natural life. Exposing rivers or streams to daylight allows for the re-establishment of plant and animal life.
Providing of recreational space is also another benefit acquired developing rivers. Rivers have the potential to create new forms of urban recreational spaces, which can range from a linear cycle and running routes to interactive spaces for children to connect with nature.
Similarly, while initial construction costs to remove hard encasements may be quite high, the future savings and economic benefits will far outweigh these costs. It is not only far cheaper to maintain a natural river compared to repairing culverts and channels, but also, the urban regeneration along the water’s edge can provide dramatic economic benefits.
It also helps cities for tackling pollution, creating green corridors, reducing urban heat island effect, driving urban regeneration and connecting to the past.
The government of Ethiopia has also launched efforts to beautify the river areas and cleaning the pollutant river into clean air sources and making green walkway in addition to developing river basin and making recreational areas for youth and residents.
The project also includes planting indigenous plant in deforested and degraded place, restoring and conserving the river ecosystem to make destination areas for its people and creating conducive training areas for the athletes. The Addis Ababa riverside project will cover 56 km starting from Mount Entoto to Akaki River to be finalized in its schedule.
The Ethiopian Herald June 1/2019
BY HIZKEL HAILU
