Surface Water and Groundwater Resources of Ethiopia: Potentials and Challenges of Water Resources Development

Abstract

Ethiopia has a complex topography, diversified climate, and immense water resources. The spatiotemporal variability of the water resources is characterized by multi-weather systems rainfall of the country. Most of the river courses become full and flood their surroundings during the three main rainy months (June-August). West-flowing rivers (Abay, Baro-Akobo, Omo-Gibe, and Tekeze) receive much rainfall unlike the northeast-(Awash) and east-flowing rivers (Wabishebele and Genale-Dawa) which receive normal to low rainfall. Although it needs further detailed investigation, according to the current knowledge, the country has about 124.4 billion cubic meter (BCM) river water, 70 BCM lake water, and 30 BCM groundwater resources. It has a potential to develop 3.8 million ha of irrigation and 45,000 MW hydropower production. This chapter discusses and presents the water resources of Ethiopia and the different challenges faced by the water sector to contribute to the economic development.

Flow Regime Classification and Hydrological Characterization: A Case Study of Ethiopian Rivers

“…The rivers originating from the eastern highlands of the country mainly flow to the east. These rivers together with the two Rift Valley river basins cover the largest land mass of the country (61%) but generate only 30% of the surface water [30]. Those rivers flowing to the west are mono-modal in nature with distinct single peak flow in July-August, whereas the rivers flowing to the east and south are generally bi-modal in nature with different seasonal flow peaks in March-April, and September-October.…”

“…The mean annual values of PFday range from 157-271 days. It means that the peak flows of the rivers in the country are recorded in the months of June to September, which is referred to as the main rainy season of the country [30]. Similarly, the mean flashiness index (RBI) of the streams of the different clusters ranges from 0.011-1.113, which is the smallest value among mean flashiness indices computed in similar studies in tropical and Mediterranean regions [37,39,40].This is a good indicator that Ethiopian rivers are non-flashy.…”

Water footprint of dairy production in Ethiopia : An assessment on commercial dairy farming and milk processing within a 200 km radius from Addis Ababa

“…Dega's climatic zone and its variables. Retrieved from (Berhanu, Seleshi, & Melesse, 2014) 1,200 121-210 11.5-17.5 Meteorological data from the locations visited, such as rainfall (mm), sunshine (h), relative humidity (%), maximum and minimum temperature (°C), and wind speed (m/s), were retrieved from CROPWAT 8 model based on the geographical positions of each farm/processing plant. As a proxy, information was retrieved from Ethiopia's meteorological station number 90 named as DIXIS (table 2), which is located at the geographical positions (8.13° N and 39.58 °E), altitude (2,600m) and is the closest in features with Chancho (9.18° N and 38.45° E) (2,614m).…”

“…It has the potential to develop 3.8million ha of irrigation and 45,000MW hydropower production. (Berhanu et al, 2014) Most of the population in Ethiopia live in highland areas. Meantime, 85% of the population is rural and dependent on agriculture with a low level of productivity.…”

GIS-based model of groundwater occurrence using geological and hydrogeological data in Precambrian Oban Massif southeastern Nigeria

“…Groundwater is found in the zone of saturation which occupies the cracks in rock masses or pore spaces among mineral grains (Berhanu et al 2014). As the demand for groundwater continues to soar worldwide, the need for delineation of groundwater potential zones becomes a vital tool for conducting a result-oriented groundwater determination, protection, and management schemes (Naghibi and Pourghasemi 2015).…”