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Background
The need for integrated
water resources management to alleviate poverty and food
insecurity especially in semi-arid Africa where over 80%
of rural livelihoods depend on land and water resources,
cannot be overemphasized. Recent strides in sustainable
resource management have recognized the need for a broad
based, integrated approach that coordinates the activities
of people dependent on a common resource-base to achieve
resource-use efficiency, equity and sustainability. In
the Nile Basin, water from the Ethiopian highlands, particularly
from the Blue Nile (known as Abbay in Ethiopia), has historically
benefited downstream people in Sudan and Egypt in different
ways – agriculture, livestock, industry and electrical
power. However, such free benefits are now threatened
due to dramatically changing land, water and livestock
management practices upstream. High population pressure,
lack of alternative livelihood opportunities and the slow
pace of rural development are inducing deforestation,
overgrazing, land degradation and declining agricultural
productivity. Poor water and land management upstream
reduces both potential runoff yields and the quality of
water reaching downstream. The result is a vicious cycle
of poverty and food insecurity for over 14 million poverty-stricken
people within the catchment, and for millions of downstream
users, including those across international borders. It
is widely recognized that improved water management in
the Abbay Basin will significantly increase water availability
for various stakeholders within the catchment. This will
help alleviate the impacts of natural catastrophes such
as droughts and reduce conflicts among stakeholders dependent
on the Nile.
The Abbay is one of
the most poorly planned and managed sub-basins of the
Nile, making poverty alleviation and food security a daunting
challenge. About two thirds of the area of this densely
populated basin falls in the highlands and hence receives
fairly high levels of rainfall of 800 to 2,200 mm p.a.
However, it is erratic in terms of both spatial and temporal
distribution, with dry spells that significantly reduce
crop yields and sometimes lead to total crop failures.
The impacts of droughts on the people and their livestock
in the area can be catastrophic. The population located
in the downstream part of the Blue Nile, is entirely dependent
on the river water for supplementary irrigation. Canal
and reservoir siltation is a major problem and results
in major cut-off areas, exacerbating socio-economic burdens
on the poor riparian farmers.
The Project
Solutions to address
the above problems lie in improving agricultural practices
and conserving water at all levels by all stakeholders,
both within Ethiopia and downstream communities dependent
on the Nile. Though well known in principle, the technologies
required for overcoming the poor and extreme distribution
of water resources are not applied because of poor adaptation
to the local conditions, unavailability of capital, institutional
constraints and inadequate scientific knowledge from a
systems perspective. Proposed by diverse stakeholders,
this study hypothesizes that with
increased scientific knowledge of the hydrological, hydraulic,
watershed, and institutional processes of the Blue Nile
in Ethiopia (Abbay), constraints to up-scaling management
practices and promising technologies within the catchment
can be overcome, resulting in significant positive benefits
(win-win) for both upstream and downstream communities,
reducing win-lose scenarios.
Undertaken in 2 ½ years,
the major research questions are as follows:
- What are the successful
interventions that help improve productivity and reverse
degradation?
- What are the impacts downstream?
- What are the opportunities
and constraints enhancing rural livelihoods and food
security?
The specific objectives
of the project are:
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Identify major water, land and
livestock management constraints and opportunities
in the Abbay catchment, as well as impacts of current
and future water, land and livestock management interventions
within the catchment and downstream.
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Adapt and apply existing hydrological
and watershed, and economic models that can be used
to estimate such impacts both basin-wide and locally
in selected communities, including their costs and
benefits, and identify ‘best-bet’ interventions.
-
Create a better overview of ‘best-bet’
management practices and interventions, and the hydrological
and socio-economic conditions for up-scaling them.
-
Build capacity of research partners,
NGOs, community leaders and policy makers, through
collaboration with local institutions and universities
to facilitate student research, stakeholder consultation,
facilitation and engagement of stakeholders in dialogues
on resource management issues and innovative approaches,
as well as generating knowledge for planners and policy
makers.
Partners
This project is being
implemented by eight organizations:
- International Water Management Institute,
- International Livestock Research Institute
- Cornell University, USA
- Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia,
- Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia;
- Omdurman Islamic University, UNESCO-Chair on Water
Resources, Sudan
- Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute, Ethiopia
- Forum for Social Studies, Ethiopia.
In addition the project involves consultative members
such as the Nile Basin Initiative, Eastern Nile Technical
Regional Organization, The Ministries of Water Resources
and Agriculture of Sudan and Ethiopia, other Universities
and Research Centers from Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.
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