Contents

1. Water Resources of Ethiopia

Introduction
In this topic, we will synthesizes information on water resources, water Potential,
the actual use of water resources in Ethiopia, water-related problems, challenges,
and a summary of available surface and groundwater resources; analysis of
surface and groundwater availability and quality challenges related to water and
synthesis of governance issues affecting water resources management institutions
and service providers.
About 71% of the earth’s total surface is covered by water bodies majorly
occupied by seas and oceans. Of the earth’s total water surface, nearly 97.5% is
alkaline accumulated in seas and oceans. The remaining 2.5% is fresh water, of
which nearly 68.7% is deposited in glaciers, 30.1% in ground water, 0.8% in
permafrost and 0.4% in surface waters. Water in lakes, rivers, atmosphere, soils
and wetlands are considered as surface waters. Surface and ground waters are by
far the most abundant and easily available fresh waters. However, fresh water is
distributed unevenly throughout the world following varied latitudinal locations,
climatic and topographic setups.
Ethiopia is among the few countries that have many rivers. Ethiopia has
enormous potential water resources. As well as being numerous, Ethiopian rivers
are energetic. They flow from the highlands of the interior to the peripheral
lowlands and then to seas and lakes bouncingly. These conditions have made
Ethiopia known as the “water tower of Northeastern Africa” and as the watershed
between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean drainage systems.
Ethiopia has abundant water resources and contains the headwaters of numerous
transboundary rivers, including the Nile. Lakes and rivers are Ethiopia’s main
water resources. Compared to other countries, Ethiopia is rich in lakes. They are
found dispersed on the plateaus and clustered in the Rift Valley. Most of the lakes
are the result of structures that occurred during the Quaternary Period; i.e., they
are not outcomes of climate. This fact is proved by the location of these lakes in
the drier parts of the country. The natural lakes found in Ethiopia can be classified
into highland and Rift Valley lakes.
 Water Resources: Rivers, Lakes and Sub-Surface Water
The Ethiopian Rivers
Unlike many other African countries, Ethiopia is endowed with many rivers. Majority of the rivers
originate from highland areas and cross the Ethiopian boundary. Altogether, Ethiopian rivers form 12
major watersheds.

General Characteristics of Ethiopian Rivers

Ethiopian rivers have the following characteristics.
 Almost all major rivers originate from the highlands elevating more than 1500 meters above sea level,
 Majority of Ethiopian rivers are trans-boundary,
 Due to the marked seasonality of rainfall, Ethiopian rivers are characterized by extreme seasonal
fluctuation. In the wet season, runoff is higher and rivers are full bursting their banks, destroying small
bridges, damage roads and flooding low lands; during the dry seasons they became mere trickles of
water or even dry up,
 Due to surface ruggedness they have rapids and waterfalls along their course,
 They have cuts, steep-sided river valleys and deep gorges along their courses,
 Rivers in Ethiopia flow on steep slopes having steep profiles.
 Some of the rivers serve as boundaries, both international and domestic administrative units.
The Ethiopian Lakes
Relatively Ethiopia is rich in lakes. Almost all Ethiopian lakes are result of tectonic process that took
place during Quaternary period of Cenozoic era. Except few Ethiopian lakes, majority of lakes are
located within the Rift Valley System. The lakes in the drainage are mainly formed on faulted
depressions and are clustered along the system forming linear pattern.
Subsurface (Ground) Water Resource of Ethiopia
As compared to surface water resources, Ethiopia has lower ground water potential. However, there
exists higher total exploitable groundwater potential.
 1.1 Water potential in Ethiopia
Surface water potential
Ethiopia manages its surface water through 12 basins which are part of four
transboundary basins: the Nile, Rift Valley, Shebelle-Juba, and North East Coast.
With the exception of the Nile Basin, all river basins experience water shortages.
Almost no perennial rivers can be found below 1,500 meters, leaving much of
eastern Ethiopia without reliable surface water.
The western Abay (Blue Nile), Baro-Akobo, Mereb, and Setit-Tekeze/Atbara Basins
are part of the Nile Basin, which generates 70 percent of the country’s renewable
surface water, mostly through the Abay Basin. Collectively, these basins provide
86 percent of the Nile’s annual flow. The central and northeastern Afar-Denakil,
Awash, Omo-Gibe, and Rift Valley Basins account for over 20 percent of surface
water resources and are part of the Rift Valley Basin, which spans much of East
Africa. Water supply is concentrated in the southern Omo-Gibe and Rift Valley
Basins. Four percent of the national supply is in the Awash Basin and water
availability is negligible in the northernmost Afar-Denakil Basin. The Awash Basin
has limited supply and high demand, with low average annual precipitation. The
eastern Wabi-Shebelle and Genale-Dawa Basins are part of the Shebelle-Juba
Basin and contain eight percent of Ethiopia’s surface water. The North East Coast
Basin encompasses the Ogaden and Aysha, but they are considered dry basins
with rivers that only flow after rainfall.

Ethiopia has 22 lakes. Lake Tana (Abay Basin) is the largest and is a critical water
source for the Nile River. There are also numerous large lakes in the Rift Valley
Basin. The country has 11 fresh and 9 saline lakes, 4 crates lakes and over 12
major swamps or wetlands. Most of lacks are located in one of the country river
basin called rift valley. The depth of some lakes and reservoirs are not known yet,
due to that is it difficult to estimate the total volume of water obtained from
these lakes.
The 12 major lakes which cover about 7,300 km2 area and storage potential of
about 84.79 BCM. Those lakes are located in different states of the country and
they have different Elevation, drainage and surface, depth area as well as storage
volume.
Ground water potential
The ground water potential of the country is much lower than the surface water
potential. However, most people of the country are found water from this
underground water sources. From the total recharge of the groundwater in
different systems, both natural and artificial, more than 50% of it is take out to
use for domestic water use.
Current estimates indicate that the ground water budding is reached more than
30 BCM if all ground water parts are assessed. Ground water is highly in
influenced by different geophysical and climatic factors like geology, topography,
and environmental conditions which makes di cult to obtained productive aquifer.
Due to that the occurrence of ground water is not uniform everywhere.
Name of Elevation Drainage Surface Max. depth Volume(BCM)
lakes (m.a.s.l) area (Km2) area(km2) (m)
Tana 1788 15,319 3,156 14 28.4
Zeway 1636 7,380 440 9 1
Langano 1585 2,000 230 46 3.8
Abijata 1580 10,740 180 14 1
Shala 1550 2,300 370 266 37
Awassa 2680 1,300 129 22 1
Abaya 1169 16,342 1,140 24.5 9.82
Chamo 1110 18,575 317 14.2 3.24
Chew Bahir 570 - 1,125 - -
Hayq 1900 83 23 81.41 1.01
Ashenge 2440 129 140 25.5 0.25
Beseka 1900 420 48.5 7 0.28
Total 84.79
Table 1: Major lakes of Ethiopia.
Hydro-electric Potential

The major water basins of the country have a large capacity to annual and perianal irrigation. Irrigation
potential of major rivers and Rift Valley Lakes is estimated to reach around 3,800,733 hectare of land.
From the total of estimated 650 million TWH hydropower production potential of the country in
different sources, approximately 160 million TWH is from major rivers and Rift valley lakes. Even if the
country has a huge hydropower generation capacity but highly dependent on fuel wood in the energy
sector especially the rural parties of the country, to say totally depend on locally available resources like
crop restudies, cow dungs corrosive like other less developed countries in the continent. Only 1% is
contributed from Hydropower from the total energy sources. The less accessibility to hydropower for
energy supply in different parts of the country and its implication in the development of the economic
sector is well recognized by the government and are go a headed to overcome it. Numbers of
hydropower infrastructures is ongoing in this time from different Rivers. e country uses a full potential
to increase the hydropower current production which is 2,218 MW to more that 10,000 after those huge
power generating dams are become end of and operate. After the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
which is constructed in Abay/Nile River that has a capacity to generate 6,000 MW, and the Gibe
cascading dam’s hydropower projects are fully operated the power production capacity of the country
will move from currently 2,000 MW to 10,000 MW.

Fishing and Recreation

Ethiopia has vast water resource and commonly known as, water tower of east Africa and has so many
lakes, rivers, reservoirs, wetlands, springs and untouched underground waters including above 20
natural lakes, 12 large river basins, over 15 big dams/reservoirs, more than 75 wetlands/marshes. And
those water bodies are rich in fish diversity and abundance, but most of the water bodies are not well
studied and therefore no organized surveys of their potential have been done. Current studies show
that the country can produce maximum sustainable yield (MSY) of fish around 95,000 tons per year from
the natural water bodies i.e. capture fishery and huge aquaculture potential in all agro-ecologies from
cold to warm water species.

Irrigation

The terrain in Ethiopia is so rugged that it limits the uses of Ethiopian rivers both for irrigation and
transportation. In the highlands, steep slopes, rapids, waterfalls, narrow and deep valleys and gorges are
important obstacles. But on the lowlands, their demand for irrigation is high. Regardless of existing
physiographic setups, Ethiopia’s potential of irrigation is estimated to be 5.3 million hectares, of which,
3.8 million hectares are occupied by surface water as stated in the table 2.

The Baro-Akobo and Genale Dawa river systems have large irrigation potential compared to other
basins. Despite the untapped irrigation practice, more than 60% of the area under irrigation so far is
located in Rift Valley Drainage System. Except few, majority of hydro-electric reservoirs are multi-
purpose and are expected to contribute for irrigation.
Table 2: Major basins with its irrigation and hydropower potential of surface water
 Actual use
Lakes and rivers are Ethiopia’s main water resources. Their usefulness is measured in terms of their
significance to current and planned economic development projects. Ethiopia’s level of technology is a
significant factor for developing these economic resources. Here is a list of some important functions of
Ethiopia’s lakes and rivers.

1) They are the main source of hydroelectric power (H.E.P.) supplies for the country
Example: River Ghibe – Gilgel Gibbe – 1, 2 and 3 H.E.P. plants
River Awash – Awash 1, 2 and 3 H.E.P. project
River Fincha – Fincha H.E.P. project,

2) They are also the country’s main source of fish.

Example: Lake Chamo. Lake Abbay, Lake Tana, River Baro, etc

3) They are again very important water sources for irrigation.

Example: River Awash is the most utilized in this regard; this is because of the flat plains it crosses for
hundreds of kilometers.

4) Majority of Ethiopian rivers are not suitable for transportation. The Baro at its lower course is the only
navigable river. Comparatively, Ethiopian lakes are much suitable for transportation than rivers. Lake
Tana and Abaya are relatively the most used for transportation.

Ethiopia’s lakes and rivers provide recreation resorts and aesthetic value. They are also important
sources of the nation’s fish. Their scenic beauty emanates the rich variety of birds, fish and other
wildlife, spectacularly deep gorges, waterfalls of all description and the mists these produce. These
panoramic features win the affection of the Ethiopian people and tourists and are sites of the country’s
best recreational resorts. The economic potential of these scenic resources is enormous but is still not
well developed.
 Conclusion
The water resources potential and its utilization rate are incomparable in the country. There are huge
amounts of both surface and ground water resources but the utilization of it is in infant rate. It is clearly
marked that the economic development of the country is never go far without utilization of water
resources properly. But under current situation, the country is not used their water resources properly
due to different political, natural, technical and economic factors. On the other side, the water sector
development programs are performing well to increase the utilization potential and at the same time
there are different eye opening future opportunities to develop the water resources development and
utilization.

Recommended actions which shall give consideration

 The government should give concerns for water resources development and utilization
programs in every state and parts of the country.
 Find the source of additional fund from different funders and allocate sufficient budget to
facilitate the task.
 Capacity building activities in all sectorial level shall encourage.
 Transboundary River management policy shall develop and put in place.
 Give consideration for climate change mitigation.
 Water harvesting technologies should expand in arid and semi- arid areas in a special case.
Geography of Ethiopia and the Horn Module for fresh man students (Published: September, 2019)

International Journal of Waste Resources (By Dessalegn Worku Ayalew) (Published date: August 22,
2018)

USAID/ WATER RESOURCES PROFILE SERIES/ Ethiopia Water Resources Profile Overview