Synthesis of research issues and capacity building in water and land resources management in Ethiopia

This paper presents an overview and synthesis of the key research and capacity building issues arising from the workshop presentations and the papers. Three days of intensive deliberations by professionals from various research, development and governmental organizations, and of diverse disciplines, backgrounds and nationalities have clearly acknowledged that water management issues remain very crucial for poverty alleviation and rural development in Ethiopia – the overwhelming proportion of the population depends on smallholder agricultural production, which is highly constrained by water availability (absence of perennial rivers, high spatial and temporal availability of rainfall, etc.). This situation, over the years, has generated a critical need for efficient water and land management to reduce production risks and hazards, and enhance stable agricultural and livestock production. Recent decades have witnessed various efforts in the area of irrigation and supplementary irrigation (and other development initiatives), employing various water harvesting technologies, construction of micro dams, diversions structures, etc., which were largely combined with traditional yield-enhancing methods to facilitate sustainable smallholder agricultural production.Most of these efforts did not only fall short of their desired objectives of improving smallholder production conditions but also generated a host of other problems which aggravated smallholder production conditions: the large scale irrigation schemes (e.g. Awash Basin and elsewhere) resulted in secondary soil salinization where large tracts of land have gone out of production; the spontaneous construction of micro-dams across the country (especially in Tigray) is associated with human and livestock health hazards that in some cases has resulted into abandonment of the dams; the production potential of extensive watersheds remain largely unexploited or inappropriately utilized, resulting in extensive degradation of fragile lands, and so on. The potential for effectively integrating crops and livestock management in the context of growing water in complementary crop-livestock systems remains largely unexploited, especially from the perspective of efficient water and land utilization. The limited success of most of the technologies in Ethiopia calls attention to a dire need for research and capacity building to understand the complex issues of water and land management, so as to enhance national and local capacity to deal with water and land management issues to enhance food security, poverty alleviation and national economic development.Length: pp.204-216Water resource managementCapacity buildingPovertyLand resourcesIrrigation managementDrainageWater harvestingLivestock

Evaluation of current and future water resources development in the Lake Tana Basin, Ethiopia

Lakes / Weirs / Environmental flows / Water resources development / Models / Ethiopia / Lake Tana Basin / Chara Chara Weir

Evaluation of Potential Reservoir Deficiency Due to Climate Change, Kesem Kebena Dam, Ethiopia

Flood is an excess inundation of water on a surface and difficult to manage. The flood occurred in previous decades of Afar region of Ethiopia, consequently, leads to the death of human beings, destruction of infrastructures, an annihilation of massive hydraulic structures, and downstream properties. The main responsible factors for the flood incidences of the region are climate change, global warming, deforestation, and desertification. Climate change, however, is the foremost reason of increasing flood hazard. To coincide with this, hydraulic structures are designed based on the previously recorded flow data of a river. In Ethiopia, numerous earthen dams are constructed. The water storage capacity of dams is determined by the appraised flood of the upstream catchment: however, when the catchment flood increases due to climate extremes, the constructed structures cannot carry and going to demolish. The extra water that rises due to climate change from the catchment has to be removed before joins to the reservoir. This study has evaluated the potential reservoir deficiency of Kesem Kebena dam due to climate change. The study has comprehended different methods based on scientific criteria and selects the appropriate measure. As per the research output, the excess water that will arise from the catchment and add to the reservoir can be controlled by diversion floodways (Emergency spillways). The study has determined the amount of excess flood join to the reservoir for the excess rainfall incident month (August) for 100 years return period. Its magnitude is 85.76m3/s. The emergency spillway is the best means to divert such unwanted water before joining to the reservoir. Its hydraulic design is discussed in the study

Towards a results-based performance management: practices and challenges in the Ethiopian public sector

The purpose of this research is to propose a strategy of managing performance in the public sector. The primary data have been collected through questionnaires administered to managers and professionals; and interviews administered to heads of planning and ICT departments.  Secondary data were collectedthrough reviewing documents (plans, reports,proclamations and regulation). Findings of this study indicate that  performance management system is disconnected at the top that weakened accountability of managers in the public sector. Besides, agencies responsible for performance management have not developed systems to monitor and evaluate performances of public organisations and their managers. As a matter of fact, public organisations have made a lot of progress in introducing LAN, developing web pages and using the internet for information sharing. However, they have not developed  database systems and computerized MIS that are important for the management of performance. The other problem of managing  performance in the public sector is the different agencies that are directly or indirectly involved in managing the performance of a particular public organisation. These are: first, the organisation itself, which is striving to implement BSC; second, the Planning and Budgeting unit of MoFED, which has not gone beyond the traditional activities of compiling plans and performance reports of public organisations, but attempting to implement Performance Based Budgeting, and finally, the Ministry of Civil Service, which is responsible for preparing guidelines for evaluation of employee performance. To emphasise the importance of performance management in the public sector, the Ethiopian government can learn from the  experiences of some African countries, which have organised  performance management units under the offices of Prime Ministers.Keywords: Results-Based Performance Management, balanced scorecard, process control, accountability, reward systems, organizational capacity, MIS

A tri-sector programme of capacity building in Ethiopia: the PAWS model

Partners for Water and Sanitation (PAWS) is a DFIDfunded partnership of public, private and government organizations who come together to offer capacity building support to water and sanitation institutions in Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa. The PAWS model of capacity building offers a unique opportunity in supporting Ethiopia’s commitment towards an accelerated effort from all stakeholders to achieve the Universal Access Plan. PAWS is offering support to the Ethiopian water sector through training, twinning and technical assistance under a number of strategic programmes. Since 2005, the programme has responded to demand for specific expertise and skills from, for example, regional water resources bureaus, governmentowned water works enterprises and the federal coordination office of the national WASH programme. Experience to date indicates the need and value of such capacity building support, while the outcomes of improved understanding and operations for institutions to carry out their roles and responsibilities are forthcoming

Assessment of Corrosion and Scale forming Potential of Groundwater Resources: Case Study of Dire Dawa City, Ethiopia

Almost 100% of the water supply of Dire Dawa City is from groundwater (including boreholes, dug wells, and springs). Recently, groundwater cause corrosion and scale problems to water distribution systems due to its content of dissolved ions that can cause public health and economic issues. The present paper investigates the corrosion and scale-forming potential of the groundwater in the city and visualizes it with mapping. Spectrophotometer, EDTA/Acid titration with calculation methods were used for water quality parameters analysis. GW Chart Calibration plot applied for the Piper diagram to categorizes the water types. Langelier saturation (LSI), Ryznar (RSI), aggressive (AI), Puckorius Scale (PSI), and Larson-Skold (LRI) indices were manipulated with Excel ® and visualized their spatial distribution using ArcGIS 10®. The mean values of LSI, RSI, PSI, AI, and LRI obtained were 0.29 ± 0.28, 6.4 ± 0.5, 5.10 ± 0.48, 12.20 ± 0.24, and 1.4±1.57 respectively. LSI and RSI results indicate moderate to low scale-forming tendency of groundwater in most parts except the northeastern part with corrosive groundwater. Based on the AI value, the groundwater ranges low corrosion in almost all zones except the edge of the northeast and northwest region. PSI indicated the water tends to form salt-scale at a medium rate. The LSI results showed that chloride and sulphate are unlikely to interfere with the formation of protecting film except in northwestern and northeastern regions where localized corrosion might occur. In conclusion, in almost all distribution system of the city is affected by calcium carbonate scale formation. The groundwater in the northwest and northeast resulted in localized corrosion because of relatively high contents of chlorides and sulphates

Analysing decadal land usecover dynamics of the Lake Basaka catchment (Main Ethiopian Rift) using LANDSAT imagery and GIS

Abstract: Development of accurate classification methods for rapidly changing catchments like that of Lake Basaka is fundamental to better understanding the catchment dynamics, which were not addressed in previous studies. Thus, the aim of this study was to map the decadal land use ⁄ cover (LUC) regimes of the Lake Basaka catchment, utilizing time series of LANDSAT images and to analyse the changes that occurred at different time periods..

Testing the WEAP Hydrologic Model for Awash Basin, Ethiopia “Soil Moisture Module with Watershed Demand Approach”

The research is financed by the Egyptian Government through the Nile Sector bilateral cooperation project Abstract Currently, there are several hydrological simulation models in use worldwide. Prior to adoption of a model to a specific basin, its feasibility and practicality should be tested. This study highlights on the application of Water Evaluation and Planning system (WEAP) model for hydrologic simulation of Awash river basin in Ethiopia. A monthly time step hydrologic model was developed using the soil moisture rainfall-runoff method incorporated in WEAP with an aim to check the suitability of the model for Awash river basin. For this purpose five selected flow gauge stations located at the upper, middle and lower Awash basin were used as control stations. The model is configured taking into account the effects of development and hence the water abstractions, storage, loss rate, etc. are estimated using the data provided through various kinds of research and survey in Ethiopia. Standard methods are also used to prepare the hydro-metrological and landuse input data for each sub-catchment. Based on data availability, the time period 1986-2005 was selected for the hydrologic simulation. The observed data were split for calibration (1986–1995) and validation (1996–2005) purposes. Initially, the model was set up using the default model parameters. Then, manual calibration is performed to reproduce the observed streamflow. The model-simulated values are compared with those obtained from observations using standard statistical tests on monthly and monthly average basis. From the performance test results, it is observed that the coefficient of determination (R2) and the Index of Agreement (IA) show a good fit. Furthermore, the Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) and the Percent Bias (PBIAS) calibration and validation results show good performance for Upper Awash stations and satisfactory results for the middle and lower Awash control stations. As a conclusion, the main modelling constraints were discussed and possible solutions were also suggested in order to improve the performance of water resources simulation models for the Awash basin. Keywords: Awash Basin, Hydrologic Simulation, Calibration, Validation, Model Performance, WEAP DOI: 10.7176/CER/12-3-07 Publication date:March 31st 202