Water Harvesting Practices and Impacts on Livelihood Outcomes in Ethiopia

Abstract

Accounting for about 43% o f GDP and employing about 80% of the country's population, agriculture is the base o f Ethiopia's economy. Small-holder farmers dominate the sector, and it is entirely dependant on rain-fed, with just about 2% o f crop land being under irrigation, which accounts for about 1.5% of cereal production in the country (WB, 2005). With increasingly unpredictable rainfall and with high pace of land degradation, the sector has become increasingly precarious enterprise, failing to feed its population, leaving on average, during the years 1980 to 2001. about 10% of the country's population looking for emergency assistance (Ibid). Needless to say. water is the most constraining factor of production and life in the country. According to the ministry of Agriculture, excluding pastoralist areas, it is estimated that more than 90 Woredas (with a total o f more than 2 million households) in the country are drought prone and regularly hit by severe water shortages. It can look but a paradox to see lives of citizens being threatened by water shortage in a country often referred to as 'water tower of east Africa’. Leaving alone the many rivers, the country has an estimated underground water of about 4.6 billion m3 (Rami, 2003:2) as compared to 15.3 mJ for the whole 17 Middle East and North African Countries (Nasr, 1999:12). The Ethiopian Government has critically recognized this seemingly paradox, phenomenal and underscored the need for water resource development and utilization in its quest for food security. The water policy stressed the need for increased use of small-scale irrigation systems through diversion of rivers and building small dams. Small-scale irrigation has been chosen by the majority of the cooperating sponsors as strategic interventions to address food security and livelihood in the country. Large-scale dam and irrigation projects have not been widely implemented in the country as they often proved to be too expensive and demanding in construction and maintenance. Traditionally, farmers in Ethiopia build small schemes on their own initiative and establish their water use association with Government material and technical support. Regional Governments were also involved in the construction o f modem small-scale irrigation schemes In line with the above, water harvesting technologies were also proposed at a household level as a practical alternative to improve the livelihood of the farming households and reduce food insecurity. Even though water harvesting is not entirely new to many parts o f the country, it received policy backing and has been implemented on a massive scale recently. Varying level o f technology of water harvesting, material and financial input have been a recent development in many regions o f the country. All the efforts were implemented with the aim to reduce poverty and increase food security on a massive scale to irrigate and produce high value crops and provide water for livestock and household consumption. Recent experience indicated that much of the money allocated for food security program in the country was invested by the regions for the implementation o f water harvesting programs, many of which are based on the construction o f household ponds and cisterns planned and implemented by the Ministry o f Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD). As a result, water harvesting tanks and ponds at a household level or village level are proposed as a practical and effective alternative to improve the lives of rural people at little cost and with minimal external inputs. Use of harvested and stored water could supplement natural rainfall and/or used as full irrigation and make farming families less vulnerable to drought. With various shocks associated with rain fed agricultural production in Ethiopia (dry spells, droughts, floods), the contribution o f rainwater harvesting to stabilizing agricultural production becomes obvious. Besides its contribution to improved food production and food security, the impacts o f rainwater harvesting are also recognized in improved water availability for multiple uses, including domestic with potentially positive (but sometimes negative) health impacts, and also improved environmental conservation and often social integration o f a community around the common pool resource that binds them together (Rockstroem, 2001). Appropriate rainwater harvesting combined with conservation tillage to make water available with plants can maximize infiltration, mitigate short dry spells, and improve soil fertility, leading to average yield increases o f up to four times from current levels. All efforts in the past resulted in mixed outcomes of stories, although not yet clear understanding of the performance has been comprehensively documented. Effective implementation of water harvesting technologies with well-defined purposes, however requires a comprehensive analysis of the immediate and potential benefits as well as the direct and indirect costs together to the welfare o f intended beneficiaries. A critical analysis under various agro-ecological setups of the feasibility, the consequent benefits and the costs of instituting water harvesting and small-scale irrigation have been lacking at a national scale. Therefore, the focus of this study is on the assessment of Technologies and performance of water harvesting with some aspects of livelihood in the household economy.