Ethiopia

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Geography, climate and population

Geography

Ethiopia, with a total area of 1.1 million km², lies in the northeastern part of
the Horn of Africa. The country is landlocked, sharing frontiers with Eritrea to
the north and northeast, Djibouti to the east, Somalia to the east and southeast,
Kenya to the south, and South Sudan and Sudan to the west. Ethiopia’s
topographical diversity encompasses high mountains and flat-topped plateaux,
surrounded by lowlands, and dissected by deep gorges with rivers and rolling
plains with altitudes ranging from 110 m below sea level at the Denakil
Depression in the northeast to over 4 600 m above sea level in the Simien
Mountains in the north. The Great East African Rift Valley divides the country.

It is estimated that 16 million ha is cultivated and 20 million ha are permanent

pastures (Table 1). Water bodies cover around 744 400 ha (IUCN, 2010), forest
and woodland about 4 million ha and 29 million ha respectively, while over 26
million ha are protected (EPA and UNEP, 2008).
Climate

Ethiopia has a tropical monsoon climate with wide topographic-induced

variation. Three climatic zones can be distinguished: a cool zone consisting of
the central parts of the western and eastern section of the high plateaus, a
temperate zone between 1 500 m and 2 400 m above sea level, and the hot
lowlands below 1 500 m. Mean annual temperature varies from less than 7-
12ºC in the cool zone to over 25ºC in the hot lowlands. Mean annual potential
evapotranspiration varies between 1 700-2 600 mm in arid and semi-arid areas
and 1 600-2 100 mm in dry sub-humid areas. Average annual rainfall for the
country is 848 mm due to its proximity to the equator and high altitude, varying
from about 2 000 mm in some pocket areas in southwest Ethiopia to less than
100 mm in the Afar Lowlands in the northeast. Rainfall in Ethiopia is highly
erratic, resulting in a very high risk of intra-seasonal dry spells and annual
droughts, of which the 1973-74, 1983-84, 1987-88, 1990-91, 1993-94 and
2015-16 are the major ones in the last decades. The drought in 2015-16 is even
considered to be the worst drought for over 30 years.

Considering the water balance and the length of the growing period, Ethiopia
can be divided into three major agroclimatic zones:

▪ Areas without a significant growing period, with little or no rainfall

(eastern, northeastern, southeastern, southern and northern
lowlands);
 ▪ Areas with a single growing period and one rainy season from
February/March to October/November, covering the western half of
the country, with the duration of the wet period decreasing from
south to north;
▪ Areas with a double growing period and two rainy seasons (Meher and
Belg) which are of two types: i) in the east of the country: there are a
small rainfall peak in April and a major one in August; ii) most of the
lowlands of the south and southeast have two distinct wet periods,
February-April and June-September, interrupted by two clear-cut dry
periods. The peak rainfall months are April and September.

Population

The total population of the country is estimated at 99 million (2015), of which

81 percent is rural (Table 1). The annual population growth rate is 2.6 percent
over the period 2005-2015 and the average population density is 90
inhabitants/km², but varies from 7 inhabitants per km² in Afar in the northeast
to 114 inhabitants per km² in Southern Region in the southwest of the country.
The urban population is growing rapidly as a result of both population increase
and high rural-urban migration.

In 2014, the Human Development Index ranks Ethiopia 174 among 188
countries and the Gender Inequality Index ranks it 129 among 152 countries
for which data are available. Life expectancy in Ethiopia is 64 years and the
under-five mortality is 62 per 1000 births in 2014, both progressing from 51
years and over 150 per 1000 at the end of the 1990s. Around 80 percent of the
children in 2010 are enrolled in primary education, thus almost doubling the
2000 rate, and with a reduced gap between boys (82 percent) and girls (78
percent) compared to that period (50 percent of boys against 39 percent of
girls). Adult literacy is 39 percent for the 2005-2012 period (UNDP, 2016), with
a gap between female literacy (29 percent) and male literacy (49 percent).
Poverty is still widely spread as it concerns almost a third of the population (30
percent) and is more concentrated in rural areas. In 2015, 93 percent of the
urban and 49 percent of the rural population were using improved drinking
water sources, that is 57 percent of the total population This represents a major
improvement since 2002 when only 33 percent of the population had access to
an improved drinking water source (JMP, 2015). Sanitation coverage also
increased from 10 percent in 2001 to 28 percent in 2015 and almost no
difference in coverage between rural and urban areas.

Economy, agriculture and food security

The Ethiopian economy is mostly based on agriculture, with industry and

services slightly increasing recently. The country’s Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) is US$54 798 million in 2014 with an annual growth of around 10 percent
since 2004, placing Ethiopia among the fastest growing non-oil producing
economies in Africa. Agriculture accounts for 42 percent of GDP in 2014 and
about 85 percent of exports earnings in 2010. It also employs 83 percent of the
active population (MoA, 2011). Agriculture is primarily rainfed and thus highly
dependent on rainfall. Smallholders dominate the sector and the land holding is
increasingly fragmented. In 2015, there were 15.6 million agricultural
households with an average farm size of 0.95 ha (CSA, 2015). It however
benefits from a liberalized economy since the 1990s. The Ethiopian livestock is
also significant with over 50 million cattle, 50 million poultry, 20 million sheep
and 20 million goats in 2015 (CSA, 2015).

The main agricultural exports are coffee, oil seeds, cereals, cotton, sugarcane,
khat, spices, natural gum, incense and cut flowers among others. Coffee is the
largest export commodity responsible for a third of the agricultural exports
earnings. Ethiopia is the largest African coffee producer and the country where
coffee is believed to have been discovered in the eponym Kaffa region. Wheat,
palm oil and raw sugar are the main agricultural imports of the country.

The following five main agricultural production systems can be distinguished in

the country:

▪ The highland mixed farming system (1 500 m above sea level) is

practiced in most regions of the south and southwest with prolonged
humid periods
▪ The lowland mixed agricultural production system (below 1 500 m) is
practiced in low-lying plains, valleys and mountain foothills, which
include the northern parts of the Awash and the rift valley
▪ The pastoral complex supports the livelihood of only 10 percent of the
total population living in the Afar and Somali regions and the Borena
zone
▪ Shifting cultivation is practiced in the southern and western part of
the country
▪ Commercial agriculture is a farming system that has only emerged
very recently

Food insecurity, as a result of frequent drought among other reasons, is very

high. The prevalence of undernourishment is still significant with 35 percent in
2014, but improved a lot falling from 55 percent in 2002 (FAO, 2015). About
10 percent of the households are considered food insecure and partly rely on
food aid even without dry spell (ODI, 2015).

Water resources

Ethiopia is endowed with a substantial amount of water resources but very high
hydrological variability. The surface water resource potential is impressive, but
little developed. The country possesses twelve major river basins, which form
four major drainage systems (Table 2):

▪ The Nile basin (including Abbay or Blue Nile, Baro-Akobo, Setit-

Tekeze/Atbara and Mereb) covers 33 percent of the country and
drains the northern and central parts westwards;
▪ The Rift Valley (including Awash, Denakil, Omo-Gibe and Central
Lakes) covers 28 percent of the country and consists of a group of
independent interior basins extending from Djibouti in the north to
 the United Republic of Tanzania in the south, with nearly half of its
total area being located in Ethiopia;
▪ The Shebelli-Juba basin (including Wabi-Shebelle and Genale-Dawa)
covers 33 percent of the country and drains the southeastern
mountains towards Somalia and the Indian Ocean;
▪ The North-East Coast (including the Ogaden and Gulf of Aden basins)
covers 6 percent of the country.

All river basins except the Nile basin face water shortages (EU, 2011). Most of
the rivers in Ethiopia are seasonal and there are almost no perennial rivers
below 1 500 m altitude. About 70 percent of the total runoff takes place during
the period June-September. Dry season flow originates from springs which
provide base flows for small-scale irrigation.

Table 2 presents the internal runoff in each basin. Due to evaporative losses,
not all flow reaches adjoining countries. For example, out of the 17 960 million
m³/year of the Omo-Gibe in the Rift valley only 10 000 million m³/year arrive
at the border with Kenya. Also, out of the 23 600 million m³/year of the Baro-
Akobo in the Nile basin, only 13 000 million m³/year are seen at the border with
South Sudan.

Intense rainfall sometimes causes flooding particularly along the Awash river
and in the lower Baro-Akobo and Wabe-Shebelle river basins, causing damage
to standing crops and infrastructures. The construction of dykes mitigated the
problem but has not provided a long-lasting solution.

Ethiopia has 11 freshwater lakes and 9 saline lakes, 4 crater lakes as well as
over 12 major wetland areas. Most of the largest lakes are found in the Rift
Valley, except Lake Tana which is the source of Abbay River in the Nile Basin.
Most Rift Valley lakes have no surface water outlets, i.e. they are endorheic,
hence extremely saline. Lakes Langano, Abbaya and Chamo are freshwater
lakes and not endorheic, but because of diminishing outflow, they are becoming
increasingly saline. Most of the lakes are rich in fish. Lakes Shala and Abiyata
have naturally high concentrations of chemicals and a soda ash operation is
located on the shore of the latter for the production of sodium carbonate (IWMI,
2007). The total area of wetlands in Ethiopia is estimated between 1.4 and 1.8
million ha (EPA, 2003; IUCN, 2010). Floodplains are mostly found in the north-
western and western highlands, the Rift Valley and the eastern highlands but
some are also located in lowlands.

The groundwater potential of the country is not known with any certainty, but
so far only a small fraction of the groundwater has been developed. It is
however more easily available than surface water in the arid areas and supplies
about 80 percent of the existing drinking water sources (EPA and UNEP, 2008).
Traditional wells are widely used by nomads.

Internal renewable surface water resources are estimated at 120 000 million
m³/year and renewable groundwater resources at around 20 000 million
m³/year, but 18 000 million m³/year is considered to be overlap between
surface water and groundwater, which gives a value of total internal renewable
water resources (IRWR) of 122 000 million m³/year (Table 2). External water
resources are null and the surface water leaving the country is estimated at
96 500 million m³/year, of which:

▪ 64 600 million m³/year flow into Sudan through the Blue Nile and its
tributaries (52 600 million m³/year), the Atbara rive (4 370 million
m³) and the Setit-Tekeze river (7 630 million m³/year);
▪ 13 000 million m³/year flow into South Sudan through the Baro and
Akobo rivers forming the Sobat river;
▪ 8 200 million m³/year flow into Somalia through the Genale and Dawa
rivers forming the Juba river (5 900 million m³/year) and the Shebelle
river (2 300 million m³/year);
▪ 10 000 million m³/year flow into Kenya through the Omo river into
Lake Turkana; and
▪ 700 million m³/year flow into Eritrea.

Ethiopia has many small, medium and large reservoir dams constructed for
hydropower generation, irrigation and drinking water supply. There are
currently 12 hydropower plants cumulating a total installed capacity of 1 945
MW (ODI, 2015). Micro-dams, i.e. dams with a water storage capacity of less
than 0.15 million m³, have been constructed for small-scale irrigation,
especially around 1999 and 2000 in the Amhara and Tigray regional states.
Total dam capacity was estimated at 6 540 million m³ in 2008, and increased
tremendously in recent years to reach about 31 484 million m³ in 2015. The
new Tekeze dam, built on the eponym river in the Nile basin and completed in
2009, has a storage capacity of 9 000 million m³ and thus largely exceeds the
previous largest Koka dam (1 900 million m³). The new Gilgel Gibe III dam,
built on the Omo river, has a storage capacity of 14 000 million m³ and started
to generate electricity after its completion in 2015. It will soon be supplanted
by the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) started in 2011
on the Abbay (Blue Nile) river close to the Sudanese border mostly for
hydropower generation. The GERD dam, expected to create a huge reservoir of
79 000 million m³, is as of May 2016 almost 70 percent completed.
Desalinization is not practiced in Ethiopia, being a landlocked country, and
treatment of wastewater is still marginal. The lack of wastewater treatment is
partly explained by the way wastewater is collected since the major wastewater
disposal system in Addis Ababa, but also in most large and medium cities of the
country, is by vacuum trucks. Only 7.5 percent of the collected wastewater is
collected by the sewerage system. The Kalitiy and Kotebe wastewater treatment
plants are the only two in the capital. The produced municipal wastewater in
the 9 main cities–Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, Hawassa, Mekelle, Bahir dar,
Adama,Gondar, Jimna ad Hara–is estimated in 2014 at 226 million m³, out of
which only 0.8 million m³ is collected, mostly by trucks (MoWIE, 2015).

International water issues

Ethiopia has seven transboundary rivers (Table 4), of which the Abbay river,
part of the Nile basin, is the most important (Table 2). These important run-off
flows to surrounding countries make Ethiopia the “Water Tower of East Africa”.

Ethiopia is a member of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), an inter-governmental

partnership launched in 1999, together with ten other Nile riparian countries.
Because both the 1929 and 1959 Nile Water Agreement assigned the Nile's
water to Egypt and Sudan without including Ethiopia and the other riverside
nations, the NBI was intended to strengthen the cooperation within the basin.
The NBI, the headquarters of which are in Entebbe, Uganda, prepared a
Strategic Action Programme, which consists of two sub-programmes: the
Shared Vision Programme (SVP) and the Subsidiary Action Programme (SAP).
The SVP is to help create an enabling environment for action on the ground
through building trust and skill, while the SAP is aimed at the delivery of actual
development projects involving two or more countries. Projects are selected by
individual riparian countries for implementation and submitted to the Council of
Ministers of the NBI for approval.

The NBI is intended to be a transitional institution until the Cooperative

Framework Agreement (CFA) negotiations are finalized and a permanent
institution created. This new Nile CFA was signed in 2010 by Ethiopia and four
other countries–Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania–and
in 2011 by Burundi. Egypt strongly opposed this agreement which gives
deciding power over large-scale hydraulic projects to a commission representing
all the signatories, hence cancelling Egypt's historical right of veto. Pre-2011
Sudan, a traditional ally of Egypt, initially also rejected the agreement, but the
new Sudan is now considering its signature due to increasing awareness of the
unequal sharing and also hoping for benefits, in particular from the Ethiopian
Renaissance dam, expected to be completed in 2017. Due to its proximity to
the Sudanese border, the dam could provide water for vast areas of irrigable
land in Sudan, as well as mitigate floods in the agricultural El-Gezira region and
greater Khartoum. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is also still to decide
upon the CFA signature, as well as South Sudan, moreover so since the water
contribution of the latter is considerable. The CFA was ratified by Ethiopia and
Rwanda in 2013 and by United Republic of Tanzania in 2015. Signature of all
countries would help organize a comprehensive management of the water
resources between the basin countries and find an agreed solution to multiple
projects of dams on the Nile for hydroelectricity generation in Uganda (see also
the country profile for Uganda). Despite there is no progress yet on the CFA,
Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have signed in 2015 the Agreement on Declaration
of Principles on the GERD, on which Egypt and Sudan accept the GERD project
and Ethiopia agreed on two studies on the impacts of the dam on the two
downstream countries.

The Genale, Dawa and Shebelle rivers are part of the larger Shebelle-Juba
basin, of which almost half lies within Ethiopia. No framework of cooperation
between riparian countries exists for this basin.

The only significant transboundary lake is Lake Abbe, shared with Djibouti. It
receives water mostly by the Awash river.

Table 5 below summarizes the transboundary aquifers shared with other

countries.
Water use

Agriculture is by far the main water-withdrawing sector. Based on the total

irrigated area, cropping pattern and calendar, annual agricultural water
withdrawal was estimated to be in the order of 5 200 million m³ in 2002, while
municipal and industrial water withdrawals were estimated to be about 330 and
20 million m³ respectively (Table 4 and Figure 1). Agricultural water withdrawal
in 2016 is estimated at around 9 000 million m³. This figure, however, seems
to be a low estimate considering both the large increase in irrigated areas and
the changing pattern in irrigated crops. The huge livestock population withdraws
an estimated 687 million m³ in 2010 (EU, 2011). Industrial demand is estimated
at 51 million m³ level and municipal water withdrawal at 810 million m³ in 2005.

Groundwater is mostly used for drinking supply. It represents about 70 percent

of rural water supply and a major role in several of the largest cities (Addis
Ababa, Dire Dawa, Mekelle, Harar) and a number of medium sized towns.
Groundwater use in irrigation is only at pilot scale for now, but plans to develop
it are studied and shallow groundwater wells are constructed by farmers in some
areas (MoWR, 2011).
Irrigation and drainage

Evolution of irrigation development

River basin master plan studies and related surveys indicate a maximum
irrigation potential of about 5.7 million ha, but about 3.7 million ha is commonly
quoted. The irrigation potential of Ethiopia is at present estimated at about 2.7
million ha, considering the availability of water and land resources, technology
and finance (Table 7).

Traditional irrigation in Ethiopia dates back several centuries, especially in the

highlands for subsistence food crops, while "modern" irrigation was started by
the commercial irrigated sugar estate established in the early 1950s by the
Imperial Government of Ethiopia and the Dutch company known as HVA-
Ethiopia in the upper Awash basin for industrial crops such as sugarcane and
cotton. In the 1960s, large-scale irrigation was developed by private companies
in the whole Awash basin, thanks to the Koka dam, as well as in the Lower Rift
Valley. Modern small-scale irrigation through communal schemes started only
in the 1970s to fight major droughts and famines, especially the 1973 one. In
the mid-1970s, state farms were created through the nationalization of private
property. Modern private irrigation re-emerged with the liberalization of the
economy in the 1990s.

Estimates of irrigated areas vary widely. In 1994, the water managed area was
estimated at about 190 000 ha, in 2001 at nearly 290 000 ha (Table 8). The
actually irrigated area was then estimated to be equal to the area equipped for
irrigation with the following reasoning: on the one hand some irrigation
schemes were not operating to their full potential or were not functional at all
due to factors related to shortage of water, damaged structures and poor water
management; on the other hand, farmers were extending canal networks in
some modern irrigation projects and therefore irrigating more land than was
reportedly equipped for irrigation.
In 2004, the water managed area was estimated at 510 000 ha, of which
175 300 ha estimated to be full-control irrigation. However, a research
estimated that about 30 percent of the command area was not operating at that
time (IWMI, 2010). In 2015, the area equipped for full-control irrigation is
estimated at 658 340 ha. The area equipped for community spate irrigation is
estimated at around 200 000 ha, giving a total area equipped for irrigation of
858 340 ha. In addition around 1 100 000 ha was estimated to be cultivated by
small farmers using temporary structures. Thus, in total around 1 958 000 ha
(Table 9 and Figure 2) is considered to be water managed in 2014/15 (NPC,
2015).
Harvested irrigated crops reported by the Central Statistics Agency (CSA) cover
327 036 ha for private holdings in 2014/15 (148 132 ha in Belg season and
178 904 ha in Meher season) (CSA, 2015b and 2015c) and there is no precision
of the irrigated crops area in the census dedicated to medium and large
commercial farms, although most of them seem to practice it.

Spate irrigation is practiced both in the midlands and lowlands. Despite few
patches practised for some decades, most of the spate irrigation has been
developed relatively recently, especially in arid areas, such as in East Tigray,
Somali, Oromia, Dire Dawa, SNNP (Southern Nations, nationalities and
Peoples), Afar and Amhara regions. Spate irrigation development concerns
between 100 000 and 200 000 ha. Spate irrigation was actually done on
140 000 ha in 2008 (Spate Irrigation Network, 2011).

About 1 240 ha of vegetables are irrigated around Addis Ababa using

wastewater or the Akaki river receiving most of the wastewater produced in the
city (WeldeSilassie, 2011; UNEP, 2014).

Irrigation schemes in Ethiopia are distinguished by:

▪ Irrigation technologies:
▪ Traditional: often small-scale and community-based, carried
out by farmers on their own initiative, including in peri-urban
areas particularly in Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar, for the
production of vegetables for the local market. Traditional river
diversions are physical structures built with local materials.
The diversion structures are normally destroyed by floods
during the rainy seasons and have to be built each year.
▪ Modern: any size or ownership.
▪ Size:
 ▪ Small: less than 200 ha, often community-based and
traditional, but can be modern. Includes wells, spate, river
diversion.
▪ Medium: between 200 and 3 000 ha, community-based or
public. Examples include Sille, Hare and Ziway irrigation
schemes.
▪ Large: more than 3 000 ha, commercial or public, such as
Wonji-Shoa sugarcane plantation, Methara, Nura Era and
Fincha. Similarly to medium, they are mainly supplied by
surface water stored in dams, with some pilot areas using
groundwater.
▪ Ownership 1:
▪ Smallholders, for subsistence or local market.
▪ Commercial.
▪ Ownership 2:
▪ Community-based.
▪ Private.
▪ Public: constructed in the 1960-70s either as private farms or
joint venture, owned and operated by public enterprises.
About 73 percent of the public irrigation schemes are located
along the Awash river. Public schemes are medium or large.

For census purposes, the CSA only distinguishes between small private holdings
on the one hand and medium and large commercial farms on the other hand.
Most of the water used for irrigation is surface water, while groundwater use
just started on pilot basis in East Amhara. Surface irrigation methods dominate
throughout, predominantly furrow irrigation for cotton and wheat and basin
irrigation for commercial fruits such as bananas. Sprinkler irrigation is being
practiced on about 10 000 ha area for sugarcane on Fincha State Farm.
Similarly, it is being used in limited areas of eastern Amhara and southern
Tigray in some smallholders’ schemes and some private farms in the Rift Valley.
Most of the earlier schemes were pump-irrigation projects, but later gravity
irrigation schemes were introduced. Some private farms had installed hydraulic
rams on the banks of the Awash river to lift up water (MoA, 2011).

Finally, rainwater harvesting, also sometimes named micro-irrigation in national

documents, is well developed in the country, although estimates vary again
widely: from 40 000 to 800 000 ha, certainly encompassing the basin
catchment for the latter figure. A recurrent estimate of 128 000 ha seems more
probable.

Role of irrigation in agricultural production, economy and society

Irrigated agriculture contributed less than 3 percent of the total cereal

production in the early 2000s. By 2010, it contributed 9 percent of the
agricultural GDP and 3.7 percent of the overall GDP. Over 1.2 million private
holders practiced irrigated agriculture in 2014/15 in the Meher season–main
rainy season–and over 0.8 million in the Belg season–small rainy season.

Irrigated crops in medium and large scale commercial farms are mostly cash
crops, in particular cotton and sugarcane, but fruits and vegetables were also
introduced. The Wonji/Shoa, Metehara and Finchaa schemes grow sugarcane
(total 21 425 ha in 2005/06), the Amibara scheme cotton (6 448 ha in
2005/06), and Upper Awash scheme fruits and vegetables (6 017 ha in
2005/06) (MoA, 2011). Large-scale irrigation schemes are under full irrigation
throughout the year (IWMI, 2009).

In small-scale irrigation schemes, irrigated crops are more diversified, but for
the country as a whole the main irrigated crops are cereals–maize, wheat,
barley or teff–, pulses, vegetables, root crops, fruits and fiber crops (cotton).
Smallholder irrigators generally prefer subsistence crops rather than cash crops
(MoA, 2011) and use irrigation to complement rainfed agriculture, i.e.
supplementary irrigation. However, during the dry season, they use full
irrigation to get additional income (IWMI, 2009).

Status and evolution of drainage systems

Drainage is as important as irrigation, particularly in the highlands of Ethiopia.

However, except in irrigated lands, drainage is not given the required attention
in rainfed agriculture where farmers construct traditional drain ditches
commonly diagonal to the main slope of the farmlands. Because of irregularity
in cross-sections and longitudinal slopes as well as inadequate capacities, the
drains are usually converted to gullies if the same drains are adopted year after
year. To avoid this happening, drain lines are changed every year. Designs of
small-scale irrigation schemes incorporate drainage systems but these are not
properly implemented. The drainage system used in the country is the surface
drainage system (gravity drainage). The construction of subsurface drainage
systems was started for one large-scale irrigation scheme in the Awash Valley
for salinity control, but was discontinued.

Women and irrigation

Women and children are the main responsible for fetching water, even when it
requires traveling long distances, up to half a day (UNESCO-WWAP, 2004). In
agriculture, out of the 15 million farm holders in 2011, only 2.7 million were
women (CSA, 2011). Both women and men can register for land ownership, but
women do not equally get access to farm plots despite the fact that they
undertake up to 75 percent of farm labour and produce 70 percent of the
households’ food (USAID, 2016). Women also have less access to extension
services and agricultural inputs, including irrigation, as well as a lower
bargaining power for changing water schedules. Hence, even with water rights,
their crops fail more often just because water was not available on time (CDR,
2011). As a result, both in rainfed and irrigated agriculture, they produce up to
35 percent less than men (USAID, 2016) and female-headed households have
a weaker position. Finally, the cultural perception that women are unable to
plough in some communities may explain partly their lower access to land and
inputs (CDR, 2011).

Water management, policies and legislation related to water use in

agriculture

Institutions
At the federal level, the public institutions involved in water resources
development include:

▪ The Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy (MoWIE) replacing the

Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR), responsible for the overall
planning, development, management, utilization and protection of the
country’s water resources, as well for the supervision all medium and
large irrigation schemes. The following six directorates in particular
are dedicated to water:
▪ Irrigation and Drainage
▪ Water Use Permit and Administration
▪ Hydrology and Water Quality
▪ Groundwater
▪ Basin Administration
▪ Water Supply and Sanitation
▪ The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), in charge of water management
(irrigation extension), including water harvesting for smallholder
irrigated and rainfed agriculture.
▪ The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF), formerly the
Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), responsible for the
preparation of environmental protection policy, laws and directives. It
is also in charge of evaluating the impact of social and economic
development projects, particularly irrigation and hydropower projects,
on the environment and is further responsible for follow-up work.
▪ The Water Resources Development Fund (WRDF)

At sub-national level, three River Basin Organisations have been established

since 2008, comprising a Basin High Council and River Basin Authorities to
ensure integrated water resources management at basin level:

▪ Awash Basin Authority (AwBA), replacing the former only basin-level

institution the Awash Basin Water Resources Management Agency
(ABWRMA). Most of the medium- and large-scale irrigation projects
and salinity and flooding problems are concentrated in this basin;
▪ Abbay River Basin Authority (ARBA);
▪ Rift Valley Lakes Basin Authority (RVLBA).

Finally, the regions are the major operational unit for projects through their:

▪ Bureau of Water, Mines and Energy (BoWME) and/or Bureau of Water

Resources Development (BoWRD), which are responsible for small-
scale irrigation and rural water supply as well as small-scale
hydropower development.
▪ State’s Irrigation Development Authorities, which undertake
operational activities in line with their mandates (study, design and
construction of small-scale irrigation schemes).

Water management

Basin Master Plans are expected to rule and detail water allocation, but since
most of them are outdated, they do not reflect the actual water needs. In
addition, formal water rights are not yet in place, so customary water rights
dominate, such as for example the rights associated to communal land tenure
in pastoralist areas. However, but these traditional institutions are not always
adapted to increasing water scarcity and mobility (EU, 2011).

Almost all traditional irrigation schemes have a corresponding traditional water

management organization, but they do not receive any formal support. These
traditional water committees, locally known as ‘water fathers’, administer the
water distribution and coordinate the maintenance activities of the schemes.
Some Water Users Associations (WUA) have been established. However, WUAs
have no legal status and are to be converted into irrigation cooperatives. There
are nonetheless differences, in particular in membership and focus, between
the two types of association. Membership is compulsory in WUA, but voluntary
in cooperative. Marketing is also the main focus of irrigation cooperatives, while
WUAs mostly concentrate on water distribution and management (MoA, 2011).

The water management of small-scale irrigation schemes is the responsibility

of the farmers themselves, mainly through informal/traditional community
groups. Apart from the provision of extension and training services to the WUAs
from the MoA, no institution is directly involved in water management in
smallholder-irrigated agriculture. Once the construction of irrigation schemes is
completed, they are handed over to the beneficiaries but maintenance remains
within the responsibility of the regional governments. The absence of any
appropriate local-level organs to cater for small-scale irrigation has resulted in
a lack of guidance in irrigation operation and maintenance at a community level.
With an increase in irrigated areas and more users, irrigation water
management and rules for water allocation are becoming more complex and
problematic.

Finances

Funding for water development activities is mainly provided by the federal or

regional government. The WRDF provide small credits to WUAs. Private
investment is increasing but remains low. The States’ irrigation authorities have
financial autonomy only over their approved and allocated budget. So far,
neither cost recovery nor irrigation charges have been considered in irrigation
development. However, in some cases beneficiaries have been contributing to
the development of some small-scale irrigation schemes by providing free
labour for up to 10 percent of the investment. Most beneficiaries have not even
contributed to the operation and management of the existing schemes let alone
to construction costs. In some small-scale irrigation schemes, though,
beneficiary communities collect irrigation charges for covering minor
maintenance costs, each beneficiary paying the same amount irrespective of
farm size or quantity of water withdrawn.

Irrigation development costs between US$5 000 and US$20 000 per hectare
(MoA, 2011).

Policies and legislation

The 1995 Ethiopian Constitution states in its article 44 that all natural resources
(including water) are the common property of the Ethiopian people and the
state (MoA, 2011). The Ethiopian Water Resources Management Policy (WRMP)
Proclamation 2000 (No 197) sets out the basis for contemporary integrated
water management in the country. Its guiding principles are: i) recognition of
water as a scarce and vital socio-economic resource to be managed and planned
strategically; ii) recognition of water as an economic good; iii) stakeholders to
be involved in water resources management. It allocates water to all regional
states regardless of the source and location of the resource, and provisions for
water rights. In 2001, the Ethiopian Water Strategy translated the policy into
action. More recently, additional legislation completed the 2000 WRMP
Proclamation:

▪ Water Resources Management Regulation 2005 (No 115) makes

provision for maintaining environmental flows, protecting or restoring
ecosystem services and addressing the water needs of marginalized
groups but its enforcement is not rigorous (ODI, 2015).
▪ River Basin Councils and Authorities Proclamation 2007 (No 534)
authorizes RBHCs and RBAs for each major river basins.

One chapter of the 2000 Water Resources Management Policy is dedicated to

irrigation, the Irrigation Policy, to develop the huge irrigated agriculture
potential for the production of the food crops and raw materials needed for
agro-industries in a sustainable way. It emphasizes decentralization and user-
based management of irrigation systems, development of priority schemes,
support and enhancement of traditional irrigation schemes, establishment of
water allocation, as well as integration of appropriate drainage facilities.

The Water Sector Development Programme (WSDP) was launched in 2002 for
a 15-year period (2002 to 2016). It includes the financing of water resources
management and development; the creation of an enabling environment;
transboundary rivers management; stakeholder participation and gender
mainstreaming; disaster-prevention and public safety, and environmental
health standards. The WSDP requested Master Plans for the seven river basins
to form a comprehensive “national river basin master plan”. Most of these plans
were completed by 2014 but used 1990s data and thus needed updates, which
started only in the three basins with functioning RBAs (Awash, Abbay and Rift
Valley).

Finally, the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) replaced the Plan for
Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP) in 2010 as
Ethiopia’s overarching five-year poverty reduction plan (MoA, 2011).

Environment and health

The main environmental issues related to water management are erosion and
siltation of water infrastructures. Water pollution is still mostly limited to urban
and industrial areas, but soil salinization is directly linked to irrigated
agriculture.

Erosion and sedimentation

Erosion is caused by natural factors, such as topography, torrential rains and

wind. It is also caused by human activities, in particular deforestation for
agriculture, charcoal, construction, mining, or by grazing, all due to
unsustainable utilization and rapidly expanding human and livestock
populations. Annual soil erosion amounts to about 1 900 million tons/year,
impacting water, land and agricultural productivity (IWMI, 2010). Since the
majority of the main rivers have their headwaters in the highlands parts of the
country, their silt content is high. As a result, water bodies are silting up,
especially in the Abbay basin (ODI, 2015). Sedimentation in dams, such as the
Koka, Aba Samuel, Borkena and Gondar, reduced their storage capacity. Water
levels of natural lakes have decreased, in particular Awasa, Abaya, Alemaya,
Lange, Rudolf, Chew Bahir, Adele and Zway, and some show signs of drying up.
Finally, a number of rivers change their courses due to siltation, particularly
during the rainy season, resulting in yearly flooding in the areas near the
riverbanks. This is particularly the case of the Lower Awash river (EPA, 2003
and EPA and UNEP, 2008).

Water pollution

Water pollution is still limited to industrial, mining and urban areas (EPA, 2012),
but is a growing problem in the Awash river basin, due to major cities and
industries in the Upper basin. In early 2000s, about 80 percent of industries
around Addis Ababa discharged their waste into nearby water bodies without
any treatment. Tributaries of the Awash river around Addis Ababa and Nazareth
are polluted (EPA, 2003). Pollution causes water hyacinth infestation in Lake
Koka, algal bloom in Lake Aba Samuel, industrial pollution of the Akaki river
and nitrate pollution of the Awash river (ODI, 2015).

Salinization

Salinity problems due to waterlogging were observed in irrigated lands along

the Awash river. In the 1980s, thousands of hectares of the Amibara plantation
for cotton, in the middle Awash basin, had to be abandoned after less than five
years of irrigation farming due to faulty drains (WB, 2007).

Prospects for agricultural water management

Recurring droughts and growing population pressure drove Ethiopian

government to prioritize irrigated agriculture in the country’s development
agenda in order to reduce the food deficit. Targets of the 2006-2010 PASDEP,
487 000 ha of small-scale irrigation and 323 000 ha of medium- and large-scale
irrigation by the end of the period (PASDEP), were mostly achieved. Ethiopia’s
first Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) targeted again a colossal increase
in irrigated land area for the period 2010-2015, for a total of 1.85 million ha in
small irrigation and an additional 785 583 ha in medium and large irrigation
schemes by 2015 (GTP, 2010). Anew these were almost reached but mostly
through traditional water management often with temporary structures not full-
control irrigation schemes. The second GTP set once more for the period 2015-
2020 a vast increase, although this small scale irrigation target is lower than in
the 2010-2015 GTP, with 1.7 million ha under small irrigation schemes and
954 000 ha under medium and large scale by 2019/2020 to develop 98 percent
of the irrigation potential (GTP2). Area under irrigation is mostly expanded with
small irrigation schemes requiring lower capital and technical investments and
reaching small communities.
However, despite the immense increases mentioned above, the harvested
irrigated crops were in 2014/2015 not yet using this new potential fully. In
addition, the rapid infrastructure development should be quickly followed by
institutional development and in particular creation of WUAs for local irrigation
management to ensure these new irrigation schemes are properly managed,
operated and maintained.

Main sources of information

CSA. 2011. Agricultural statistics results for 2009/10. Central Statistical

Agency.

CSA. 2015. Key findings of the 2014/2015 (2007 E.C.) Agricultural sample
surveys. Central Statistical Agency. Addis Ababa.

CSA. 2015b. Agricultural sample survey 2014/15.Volume V. Report on area,

production and farm management practice of Belg season crops for private
peasant holdings. Central Statistical Agency, Addis Ababa.

CSA. 2015c. Agricultural sample survey 2014/15.Volume III. Report on farm

management practice of Meher season crops for private peasant holdings.
Central Statistical Agency, Addis Ababa.

EPA. 2003. State of environment report of Ethiopia. Environmental Protection

Authority. Addis Ababa.

EPA. 2012. United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20).

National report of Ethiopia. Environmental Protection Authority. Addis Ababa.

EPA, UNEP. 2008. Ethiopia environment outlook. Environment for development.

Environmental Protection Authority. United Nations Environment Programme.
Addis Ababa.

EU. 2011. Managing water for inclusive and sustainable growth in Ethiopia: key
challenges and priorities. European Report on Development. European Union.

FAO. 2015. State of food security 2015. Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations. Rome.

IGRAC. 2014. Transboundary aquifers of the world. Update 2014. International

Groundwater Resources Assessement Center.

IUCN. 2010. Wetlands of Ethiopia. Proceedings of a seminar on the resources

and status of in Ethiopia’s wetlands. The World Conservation Union.

IWMI. 2007. Water resources and irrigation development in Ethiopia. Working

Paper 123. International Water Management Institute.

IWMI. 2009. Importance of irrigated agriculture to the Ethiopian economy:

capturing the direct net benefits of irrigation. Research Report 128.
International Water Management Institute.
IWMI. 2010. Irrigation potential in Ethiopia. Constraints and opportunities for
enhancing the system. International Water Management Institute.

JMP. 2015. Progress on drinking water and sanitation – 2014 update.

WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation.

MoA. 2011. Small-scale irrigation situation analysis and capacity needs

assessment. Ministry of Agriculture.

MoADR. 2006. Agricultural policies, programs and targets for a plan for
accelerated and sustainable development to end poverty (PASDEP) 2005/6 -
2009/10. Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

MoFED. 2010. Growth and transformation plan 2009/10-2014/15. Volume I:

Main text. Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.

MoWIE. 2015. Urban wastewater management strategy. Ministry of Water,

Irrigation and Energy.

MoWR. 2011. Ethiopia: strategic framework for managed groundwater

development. Ministry of Water Resources.

NPC. 2015. The second growth and transformation plan (GTP II) (2015/16-
2019/20). National Planning Commission.

ODI. 2015. Building adaptive water resources management in Ethiopia.

Overseas Development Institute.

Spate Irrigation Network. 2011. Status and potential of spate irrigation in

Ethiopia.

UNDP. 2016. Human Development Reports: Data. United Nations Development

Programme. New York.

UNEP. 2014. Building urban resilience-assessing urban and peri-urban

agriculture in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. United Nations Environment Programme.

UNESCO-WWAP. 2004. National water development report for Ethiopia. United

Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization- World Water
Assessment Program.

CDR. 2011. Digging, damming or diverting? Small-scale irrigation in the Blue

Nile basin, Ethiopia. Working Paper Series 84. Center for Development
Research, University of Bonn.

USAID. 2016. Empowering women through agricultural development in

Ethiopia. Available at: https://www.usaid.gov/results-data/success-
stories/empowering-women-through-agricultural-development-ethiopia,
accessed in June 2016.
WB. 2007. Environmental and social management framework-Ethiopia
irrigation & drainage project. World Bank.

WB. 2016. World Development Indicators. World DataBank. World Bank.

Washington.

WeldeSilassie. 2011. Wastewater use in crop production in peri-urban areas of

Addis Ababa: impacts on health in farm households. Environment and
Development Economics 16(1):25-49.

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