Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands Climate and Hydrology Inception

Report

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands

Engineering Corporation of Oromia

Feasibility Study and Detail Design of Erer Large Dam

Development Project

Inception Report of Climate and Hydrology

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Nov, 2022
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
 Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands Climate and Hydrology Inception
Report

Table of Content

1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................1
1.1 Background............................................................................................................................1

1.2 Location & Accessibility of the project areas........................................................................1

1.3 General...................................................................................................................................2

2. Soil/and use/cover Data:.....................................................................................................8

3. Hydrology and Climate.......................................................................................................9
3.1 General...................................................................................................................................9

3.1.1 Objectives and Scope......................................................................................................9

3.1.2 Expected Output............................................................................................................12
3.1.3 Field Activities to be made in the future.......................................................................12
5. ACTIVITIES AND PLANS..............................................................................................14
5.1 General.................................................................................................................................14

5.2 Climate and Water Resource................................................................................................14

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 Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands Climate and Hydrology Inception
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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 : Geographical Locations of the selected Dam site.........................................................2

Table 1: Climate Station in the vicinity of the Study Area..........................................................3
Table 2: Stream Flow Gaging Stations in the vicinity of the Study Area.....................................7

LIST OF FIGUER

Figure 1: Meteorological Stations in and near the Erer Dam catchment......................................2

Figure 2: Locations of Erer Dam site, Catchment, Meteorological Stations and Centroid of the
Catchment.....................................................................................................................................3
Figure 3: Erer Dam Drainage System considering the Two Dam Site Options after Filed
Verification...................................................................................................................................4
Figure 4: Locations of Erer Dam Catchment and Meteorological stations with respect to
Webishebele Basin.......................................................................................................................5
Figure 5: Flow Gaging Stations in the Webishebele Basin nearby Erer Dam Catchment...........6
Figure 6: Flow Gaging Station in and nearby the Study Area Catchment..................................6

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 Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands Climate and Hydrology Inception
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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

The importance of irrigation has been increasingly recognized as one of the strategies to enhance
food-self-sufficiency, provision of domestic potable water and promote economic development of
the country. Irrigation improves agricultural production and productivity by solving the problem
of water shortage caused due to the unpredictable rainfall. Therefore, irrigation development is
crucial to sustainable and reliable agricultural development, and thus for the overall economic
development of the country.

Currently, concerted efforts are being made at regional level to transform the prevailing
subsistence production system to high value, market-oriented production system, and one of such
efforts exerted in this line embarks on the judicious use of the available surface water sources
particularly rivers for the small-scale irrigation development in the region.

To realize this, Ministry of Irrigation and Lowland planned to develop Erer Large Dam
Development Project in East Hararghe Zone Babile District. The aim of the proposed irrigation
project is aimed at utilizing surface water resources to improve the livelihood of the surrounding
community residing in the project area.

This Inception report is prepared in accordance with the contractual agreement made and signed
between Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands, and Oromia Engineering Corporation (ECO) on
November 2022 to conduct the study and design of the aforementioned projects.

The main purpose of the inception report is to convey the consultants’ perception of the project
and the approaches the consultant would follow to carry out the consultancy service for climate
and hydrology part of the project. Furthermore, the inception serves as a means of establishing
common understanding of the project between the Clients and the Consultant (Oromia
Engineering corporation (ECO), illustrating the implementation plan for the various activities of
the project study specifically pertinent to climate and hydrology of the project.

1.2 Location & Accessibility of the project areas

The Erer Dam irrigation project is located in Babile district, East Hararghe Zone of the Oromia
Regional State. The project site that assessed and identified by the client

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 Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands Climate and Hydrology Inception
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1.3 General

The dam sites of project have its own distinct features, the team made an attempt to see every
technical part of the headwork sites. Three sites were observed in the district but best possible site
was selected for this inception report based on the suitability and feasibility compared to the
remaining sites. The suitability and feasibility that was utilized to select the best of the three sites
were construction with low costs, its accessibility to transport construction materials, foundation
condition, stability of the abutment, availability of the required head to irrigate the proposed
command area, availability of construction materials in their vicinity, etc. Therefore, based on the
above-indicated criteria, the team assessed and selected the best dam site for this project as shown
in Table 1. The selected dam site has two options as shown in Table 1.

Table 1 : Geographical Locations of the selected Dam site

Opti
Administrative Location Scheme Geographical location (meters)
on
Wored
Zone Kebele Name X Y Z
a
East --- Erer A01 199154.4 1015670 1278.50
Hararg Babile
he Erer A02 199099 1013738 1267.75
Source: Field Data

Erer Dam

Figure 1: Meteorological Stations in and near the Erer Dam catchment

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 Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands Climate and Hydrology Inception
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Table 2: Climate Station in the vicinity of the Study Area

S/No Station Name Class Distance from Centroid
of Catchment (km)
01 Harar TTS/Mission/School 1 22.14
02 Haramaya 1 23.24
03 Kombolcha Not available 15.24
04 Babile 3 24.74
05 Bisidimo 3 26.94
06 Gursum/Fugnan Bira 3 19.29
07 Chinaksen 4 38.87
08 Jigjiga 1 63.30
09 Fedis 4 30.21
Source: Wabishebele Master Plan (2004)

Drainage System Delineation

Location: 192989.153828 E Longitude, 1021645.87397 N Latitude
Projection: WGS_1984_UTM_Zone_38N
Catchment area (km2) for Option 1 as verified by Engineer (AO1) = 572.887
Catchment area (km2) for Option 2 as verified by Engineer (AO1) = 739.739
Centroid (X coordinate = 193603.885866 m East Longitude, Y coordinate = 1034984.79556 m
North Latitude) WGS_1984_UTM_Zone_38N

Figure 2: Locations of Erer Dam site, Catchment, Meteorological Stations and Centroid of the Catchment

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 Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands Climate and Hydrology Inception
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Figure 3: Erer Dam Drainage System considering the Two Dam Site Options after Filed Verification

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 Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands Climate and Hydrology Inception
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Figure 4: Locations of Erer Dam Catchment and Meteorological stations with respect to Webishebele Basin

Note:
In case the data is not available for the required climate data elements with the required length of
time (20 to 30 years), then Satellite data will be utilized for the study for the future feasibility
study by collecting from NMSA.

Flow Gaging Stations

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Figure 5: Flow Gaging Stations in the Webishebele Basin nearby Erer Dam Catchment

Figure 6: Flow Gaging Station in and nearby the Study Area Catchment

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 Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands Climate and Hydrology Inception
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Table 3: Stream Flow Gaging Stations in the vicinity of the Study Area
S/No Station Name Distance from outlet of
Catchment (Dam site)
(km)
01 Lake Adele at Adele Town 45.12
02 Lake Haramaya at 38
Haramaya town
03 Hameressa River nr Harar 26.67
town
04 Bisidimo River at Bisidimo In the catchment
town
05 Upper Erer River at Erer In the catchment
Guda
06 Upper Fafam near Bridge 38.02
07 Jigjiag at Jigjiga town 63.28
Source: GIS-MoWE (2004)

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2. SOIL/AND USE/COVER DATA:

The soil and land use and cover data will be secured from FAO soil data. Land use and cover data
will be downloaded from ESRI Global LULC Maps (2020).

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3. HYDROLOGY AND CLIMATE

3.1 General

Hydro meteorological study is part of the sectorial Inception Report for Erer dam Irrigation study
project. The Inception report consists of individual sector report, which present the results of the
sector reviews undertaken during the given days inception phase of the projects.

Common aspects of the sector reports are:

 Literature review (existing reconnaissance level and other studies)

 Reconnaissance field visit

 Data review and assessment

 Methodology /work plan (data collection, site investigation, data analysis):

The major activities of the proposed consultancy assignment are to be focused on thorough review
previous studies (if any) and, carry out feasibility study and detail design of the projects. Reviews
and updating of previous studies will be the bases for the feasibility study and detail design
undertaking.

As the component of the study, the following are to be undertaken:

 Review and update studies made concerning the proposed development project works
envisaged in the previous studies.

 Determine and update water requirement of the projects and assess its availability.

 Conduct investigation works of design flood estimation, flood routing, spillway sizing,
reservoir operations and water balance, sediment estimation, finally determine the size of
dam.

3.1.1 Objectives and Scope

4.1.4.1 Objective

The main objective of climatic and hydrological studies is to derive reliable data for design of
head works (dam and appurtenant works) and command area of the Erer dam Irrigation study

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projects. Therefore, the purpose of the climatologic and hydrology studies is to review the
previous studies related to the project at interest

Climate and Hydrological data are essential element in the design of Head works (dam and
appurtenant works) and irrigation design of the command area. These major figures are: the
minimum, the mean and maximum flows of the river and water levels at the proposed locations,
and also ETo, duty of canals and drains. To obtain these values, the flow and climate record for as
many years as possible is needed.

In the initial stage of the project study, all data will be checked and updated to the date as needed.
Verification and reconstitution of the existing data will comprise visual inspection of the data,
graphical and statistical analysis in order to eliminate outlier values from the records and results
made for the previous study.

The following are some of the most common specific objectives for this project: -
 To analysis the hydrological water resources at proposed dam sites,

 To analysis the climate data to derive the irrigation water requirement and rainfall and
effective rainfall in the command area,
 To model and estimate the stream flow potential at proposed dam sites,
 To estimate the maximum flood by maximum flood frequency for the design of dam,
appurtenant and irrigation conveyance structures for the return period of 1/2PMP years,
 To estimate low flow and environmental flows at the head work sites and at the
downstream sites,
 To estimate the water resources demands for irrigation, environment and other demands in
the area,
 Model the water balance of the catchment and for the proposed command area
 To estimate the sediment transport, load at the dam site and estimation of dead load for
dam capacity fixing,
 To determine the inlet level for the desired Irrigation system for the 50 years’ service life
of the dam
Relying on previous studies as appropriate and on initial statistical analysis of existing data, the
consultant will provide the evaluation of the following variables:

 Time series of daily rainfall data

 Monthly mean climatic data

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 Estimates of monthly Evaporation and potential Evapo-transpiration

 Time series of monthly stream flow

 Estimates of floods

 Estimates of the sediment load

 Identify the water level for storage dam

 Determination of dam breach coverage area

4. Approach and Methodology

For the next detail feasibility study and report, the following methodologies will be applied.

 Hydro-meteorological data will be collected from the Hydrology Directorate of the

Ministry of Water and Electricity and National Meteorological Agency (NMA);

 Review of the previous works carried out within the limits of the project areas or adjacent
to it as deemed necessary;

 Identify data gaps;

 Based on the available topographic maps detail identification of sub-catchments of the

study area will be assessed;

 Analysis of hydro-meteorological parameters of the project area based on the collected

data;

 Collect primary data from field and respective offices and relevant hydro meteorological
data (i.e., rainfall, flow data and etc.);

 Data will be organized, pre-processed, produced relevant maps i.e., DEM, drainage
system, sub-catchments area delineation from DEM data and by using Global mapper 18
using Arc GIS 10 with extension of Arc SWAT 2012 software’s;

 Monthly water availability of the catchment based on long term daily hydrological data or
rainfall data and assess the magnitude of surface water will be estimated;

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 Peak flood of the proposed sub-catchment areas based on long term yearly hydrological
data and assessment of the magnitude of design flood will be estimated; frequency
distribution of daily highest rainfall analysis will be computed;

 Determination of the runoff from the study area applying the SCS Curve Number model
method;

 Understand from the previous works and present interpreted data; compute monthly base
flow or dependable flow and peak flood for the project areas will be determined;

 Use the surveying data collected by the engineer for the two-dam axis and the longitudinal
profile course of the river (including river center and both banks) is collected to desirable
extent.

 Dam breach Analysis

3.1.2 Expected Output

The major expected outcomes of this study are as listed below:

 Based on the available hydrometric data, the surface water flow magnitude of the leaving
sub-catchments will be estimated.

 Flood magnitude with their respective return period will be estimated for the design of
drainage structures;

 Based on the analyzed data, the flood amount will be estimated;

 Estimate the availability of water in sub catchments based on the available data;

 River discharge, including peak discharge, frequency of the occurrence and their risks;

 Based on the evaluation of the present hydro-meteorological network of the study area
further recommendation will be given.

 Dam breach hazard area indicated

 Reservoir routing carried out

3.1.3 Field Activities to be made in the future

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The major objective of the fieldwork is to observe the existing land use and land cover and soil
maps, and to note the status of important hydro-meteorological gauging stations that will be used
as input for the water availability analysis and estimation hydrological parameters needed in the
design of drainage structures. These may include:

 Field observations on the hydrological characteristics of the sub-catchments (topography,

land use cover, soil, river channels, flows etc.);

 Detail observations and base flow measurement of the stream/river;

 Identification of cross drainages along the main canal.

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5. ACTIVITIES AND PLANS

5.1 General

Secondary data collection and compilation at the office level will be underway until the client
decides on the findings of the inception report. Based on the feedback of the client, the fieldwork
will be started. Some of the preparation works indicated as follows.

5.2 Climate and Water Resource

The hydrologist will collect and compile meteorological and hydrological Data for their
consistency and adequacy of the nearby meteorology station of the individual irrigation project
from National Meteorological Agency. These include:

a Meteorological data (Monthly Meteorological data including rainfall, maximum and

minimum temperatures, relative humidity, wind speed and sunshine duration)

b Hydrological data (Hydrological data from gauging stations

c Sediment analysis

d Reservoir routing

e Determination of Reservoir size and spillway size

f Carryout analysis of water balance

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