Background It has been increasingly recognized that urbanization is responsible for alterations of land use/land cover globally with substantial environmental impacts on all temporal and spatial scales. Particularly, it significantly affects the hydrologic cycle. Floods are the major threats to several cities worldwide with more effects in developing countries. Likewise, urban water management has become the main focus of sustainable urban development and poses higher demand for information related to the interaction between the urbanization process and hydrological attributes, but little is known in the context of Ethiopian urban centers. For this, Adama city, a fast grown and flood vulnerable urban area is considered to examine the impacts of urbanization on the storm runoff at different spatial scales from 1995 to 2019. Preparing land use/land cover (LULC) maps for different periods, the dynamics of LULC transformations were analyzed. The SCS-CN method was used to compute runoff at respective years from which spatiotemporal changes of the city’s hydrology were assessed at the city and watershed levels. Regression analysis was used for exploring the relation between the spatiotemporal changes of imperviousness ratio and runoff.Results The findings show that the urban built-up area undergone about 22% expansion annually from 1995 to 2019. Besides the runoff is increased by 23% in the City and 31% and 16.6% in the watersheds. Moreover, the significant direct linear relationship is found between the spatiotemporal variations of runoff and imperviousness ratio at both spatial scales.Conclusions Adama city has experienced significant LULC transformations over the last 24 years with significant effects on hydrological attributes, which pressed an alarm for increasing flood hazards. Hence, in order to realize sustainable growth of the city, future developments should be guided by impervious surface-based land use regulations.

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Forced, by rapid increases in urban population, municipal administrations in Ethiopia are wrestling with an ever rising problem of solid waste management. In the emerging Legetafo-Legedadi town open and indiscriminate dumping of solid waste is rampant and piles of decaying growing in the garbage remain uncollected. The study focused on an analysis and discussion of the challenges of solid waste around the open dumpsite and environmental, economic, and health impacts arising from the haphazard and poor waste management. In doing investigation, descriptive research design was followed. Using purposive sampling technique, key informants were selected. Besides, participants were selected using simple random sampling technique. The data gathering instruments employed in the study were, interview, key informant interviews, focus group discussion, and site observation. The findings of the study revealed that existing solid waste collection practice could not cope with the increasing volume of solid waste in the town. Illegal dumping is increasing polluting the roadsides, open spaces, and temporary collection sites with potential health menace to the residents of the town Accordingly, 59 percent (216) of the respondents stated that open dumpsite posed public health risks; 18.9 percent (69) said that there was uncontrolled dumping even at the dumpsite, and 12.3 percent (45) argued that the open dumpsite contaminated groundwater. Apparently, the residents are facing health and environmental challenges due to poor management of solid wastes. With this regards, it is recommended that the town administration should apply integrated solid waste management system.

Background: Lack of dietary diversity especially for children 6-23 months is critical because they require energy and nutrient-dense foods for both physical, mental growth and development. However, in many low-income countries particularly in rural area, at least meeting the minimum dietary diversity standard has been a major challenge. Therefore, this study aimed to assess minimum dietary diversity and associated factors among 6-23 months children in rural community of Kacha Bira district, Southern Ethiopia.Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was employed on 623 children aged 6-23 months. Two stages cluster sampling method was conducted to select study population. Pre-tested and interviewer administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were entered and cleaned by Epi data 3.1, then exported to SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 20 for statistical analysis. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression was employed using a p-value < 0.25 and < 0.05, respectively. Results: In this study, the day before data collection 46.1% (95% CI: 42.1-50.0) of 6-23 months children were fed on adequately diversified diets. Maternal age 18-24 years [AOR=3.68(95%CI: 1.18, 6.22)], post-natal care follow up [AOR=8.8 (95%CI: 5.17, 14.98)], children 6-11 months age [AOR=2.04(95%CI: 1.24, 3.39)] and being household food secured [AOR=3.64(95%CI: 2.27, 5.84)] were associated with dietary diversity.Conclusions: In the study area less than half of 6-23 months children were fed on adequately diversified diets, which is very low. All mothers should be encouraged to make postnatal care follow up and measures should take to improve food security of the household.