Water related interventions at the Kabe
Watershed Pilot Project in Ethiopia, 2011-
2013
Mohammed Seid (Wollo University)
Workshop on the lessons and success stories from a
pilot project on climate change adaptation
interventions in Kabe watershed, south Wollo,
Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, 11-12 February 2013

1. Introduction
 Farmers of Kabe watershed
faced a number of problems.
 They had unprotected and
polluted drinking water
 Shortage of irrigation water
 Land degradation (gully and
rill formation, increased runoff,
loss of soil fertility, reduced
ground water, stream bank
disturbances. All these assumed
to be resulted from climate
changes.

2. Methodology
 Discussions were held with communities to implement water related
interventions.
 The implementation of
the water related
interventions followed
landscape gradients:
upstream, midstream and
downstream part of the
watershed.
 The intervention include soil and water conservation measures, water
harvesting structures, hand dug wells, spring development and night
storages.
 Forage development and home-garden activities were integrated
to the water intervention so as to maximize the benefits for the
farmers.

3. Interventions
Spring development
Water harvesting structure
Night storage
Hand dug well

4. Results/impact
• After implementation of
water related
interventions, the
community able to get
clean drinking water,
more irrigation water
and additional income by
producing high value
horticultural crops.
 Hand dug wells can provide much
water at about 1.5 to 5 m depth in the
lower part of the watershed.

Table 1. Summary of results
water Dischar possible
depth water ge rate irrigable
Scheme type (m) volume (l) (l/min) no users land (ha)
M F Total Benefits Remarks
no cultivation
Hand Dug Well_1 3 54.985 2.75 2 2 0.5000 not yet at all
2230.00 From vegt.
Hand Dug Well_2 6 23.565 0.35 1 1 0.1750 Eth.Birr sale
under land
Hand Dug Well_3 3 39.275 0.49 1 1 0.1250 not yet preparation
7 clean drinking satisfied
Spring dev one 3.67 72 1 143 0.0000 water community
under land
Spring dev two 0.23 1 1 0.0250 not yet preparation
3 clean drinking satisfied
Spring dev three 9.63 33 7 70 0.0000 water community
Night storage one 14.78 10 9 19 1.0850 not yet not harvested
Water harvesting 2 64000 1 1 0.0264

5. Conclusion/lessons
 In this project, we could develop design flexibile for:
 Small scale irrigation and
 Water supply schemes to reduce cost.
 learnt on how to apply local knowledge and locally
available materials for the construction of small scale
water works.