Improved water and land management in the Ethiopian highlands and its impact on downstream stakeholders dependent on the Blue Nile

Improved water and land management in the Ethiopian highlands and its impact on downstream stakeholders dependent on the Blue Nile – short title Upstream-Downstream in Blue Nile River project is one of the projects in the Nile Basin supported by the CPWF. It was implemented during from 2007 to 2009 through a partnership of 8 institutions. The Blue Nile is the major tributary of the Nile River, contributing about 62% of the Nile flow at Aswan. About two thirds of the area of this densely populated basin is in the highlands and hence receives fairly high levels of annual rainfall of 800 to 2,200 mm. However, the rainfall is erratic in terms of both spatial and temporal distribution with prolonged dry spells and drought often leading to crop failures. Currently, water resources are only marginally exploited in the upper basin but are much more developed in the downstream reaches. The population, located in the downstream part of the Blue Nile, is dependent on the river water for supplementary irrigation and energy production. Canal and reservoir siltation is a major problem, adding the burdens of poor riparian farmers. This project was envisaged to improve the scientific understanding of the land and water resources of the basin, and hypothesized that with increased scientific knowledge of the hydrological, watershed, and institutional processes of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia (Abbay), constraints to up-scaling adaptable best practices and promising technologies (technical, socio-economic, institutional) could be overcome, which will result in significant positive impacts for both upstream and downstream communities and state

Blue Nile (Abay) hydropower potential, prioritization and tradeoffs on priority investments

In Abtew, W.; Melesse, A. M. (Eds.). Proceedings of the Workshop on Hydrology and Ecology of the Nile River Basin under Extreme Conditions, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 16-19 June 2008. Sandy, UT, USA: Aardvark Global Publishing.Ethiopia is among countries which has very low modern energy sources. The topographic feature and the available water of Ethiopia permit to have a large hydropower potential. However, as the available runoff in rivers has very high hydrological variability, tapping in to this potential require investment on storage to smooth the temporal hydrological variability. In this paper, first the behaviour of this hydrological variability and implication of water resources development is discussed. Secondly, various documents and reports provide varying values of hydropower potential of Ethiopia and Abbay. To close the information gap, topographical and hydrological site evaluation for the selected hydropower potential sites have been carried out, for 129 possible potentials sites which are identified by WAPCOS in 1990 and having total capacity of 13,845 MW. After evaluations these sites 91 possible sites with potential of 12,148 MW are identified and mapped under various sub-basins. Dabus sub-basin stands first among the 16 sub-basins by 13 hydropower potential sites and these sites give 3524MW. In order to exploit the available hydropower potential in the country, it is crucial to rank these sites. The ranking of these sites have been carried out based on cost per kilowatt hour of the hydropower potential (HP) sites. Furthermore, the paper discusses the benefits and tradeoffs for four priority development identified by ENTRO as Eastern Nile fast track projects

The Nile Basin: tapping the unmet agricultural potential of Nile waters

This paper provides an overview of poverty levels, hydrology, agricultural production systems and water productivity in the Nile Basin. There are opportunities to manage water better in the basin for use in agriculture to improve food security, livelihoods and economic growth by taking into account not only the water in the river, but also by improving management of the rain water. Crops, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture have long been important in the Nile but do not feature in the water discourse

Blue Nile (Abay) hydropower potential, prioritization and tradeoffs on priority investment [Abstract only].

In Abtew, W.; Melesse, A. M. (Eds.). Proceedings of the Workshop on Hydrology and Ecology of the Nile River Basin under Extreme Conditions, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 16-19 June 2008. Sandy, UT, USA: Aardvark Global Publishin

Improved agricultural water management in the Nile Basin: intervention analysis

Poster for: CPWF Nile Basin Focal Project Final Workshop, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 9 December 2009.This poster demonstrates the appropriate intervention analysis that increases the positive role and mitigates the negative impact of water through water development and management in the Nile Basin can contribute to: agricultural productivity and growth, poverty reduction, livelihood improvement, national and transnational (regional) economic transformations. It also describes the objectives of the intervention analysis

Spatial characterization of the Nile Basin for improved water management

In Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele; Smakhtin, Vladimir; Molden, David; Peden D. (Eds.). The Nile River Basin: water, agriculture, governance and livelihoods. Abingdon, UK: Routledge - Earthsca