1.
Water for All? Collaborative Water
Allocation in the Awash River Basin
Feyera Hirpa, University of Oxford
feyera.hirpa@ouce.ox.ac.uk

2.
REACH Water Security and Poverty Conference
27-29 March | Keble College, Oxford
THE AWASH RIVER BASIN, ETHIOPIA
• A major contributor to Ethiopia’s GDP
– Agriculture, hydropower, livestock.
Domestic and industrial water supply,
ecosystem, commercial
• Highly variable rainfall
– Frequent occurrence of flood and
drought
– Low specific water yield (1/6th of Abbay;
but with 15% more population density)
• Multiple decision makes and
stakeholders
– Shared by 5 Regional States (112
woredas), and 2 Administrative City
Councils

3.
REACH Water Security and Poverty Conference
27-29 March | Keble College, Oxford
DEMAND AND SUPPLY MISMATCH
Supply
Demand
Demand
– Agricultural
– Livestock
– Domestic and
municipal
– Industrial
– Environmental flow
Supply
– Rainfall
– River flow
– Groundwater

4.
REACH Water Security and Poverty Conference
27-29 March | Keble College, Oxford
FUTURE FLOW WILL LIKELY DECREASE IN ETHIOPIA
• High resolution climate simulations
show the future streamflow will
decrease in the Awash river basin
• The high flows are expected to
decrease, which may reduce the
groundwater recharge rates
• Low flows also will likely decrease,
reducing water availability during
the dry seasons.

5.
REACH Water Security and Poverty Conference
27-29 March | Keble College, Oxford
GROUNDWATER RESOURCES IN AWASH
Six major aquifers in
Awash basin
Kebede et al., 2019 (in prep)

6.
REACH Water Security and Poverty Conference
27-29 March | Keble College, Oxford
SEDMENTATION IS FILLING THE RESERVIORS
Sediment accumulation in
Koka reservoir is
decreasing the storage
capacity by 13M m3/year.
This may also be a problem
for other dams.

7.
REACH Water Security and Poverty Conference
27-29 March | Keble College, Oxford
DECISION SUPPORT TOOLS FOR WATER
RESOURCES PLANNING AND ALLOCATION
Developed in collaboration with the
Awash Basin Authority
• Performs water allocation
• Considers climate, policy and
socio-economic changes
WEAP model for the Awash basin
Demand sites, catchments

8.
REACH Water Security and Poverty Conference
27-29 March | Keble College, Oxford
COLLABORATIVE ALLOCATION FOR
EQUITABLE WATER ACCESS
Stakeholders
• Woredas (120)
• Irrigated farmers (23)
• Basin Authority
– Hydrologists
– Regulators

9.
REACH Water Security and Poverty Conference
27-29 March | Keble College, Oxford
COLLABORATIVE ALLOCATION FOR
EQUITABLE WATER ACCESS
• Only surface water supply • With surface and groundwater
supply
With no regulation/collaboration

10.
REACH Water Security and Poverty Conference
27-29 March | Keble College, Oxford
COLLABORATIVE ALLOCATION FOR
EQUITABLE WATER ACCESS
Surface and groundwater supply
• No regulation/collaboration • Capped water use for irrigation

11.
REACH Water Security and Poverty Conference
27-29 March | Keble College, Oxford
COLLABORATIVE ALLOCATION FOR
EQUITABLE WATER ACCESS
• Surface water only
• No regulation
1984 was extremely dry year
• Groundwater and
surface water
• No regulation
• Groundwater and
surface water
• Capped irrigation
water use

12.
REACH Water Security and Poverty Conference
27-29 March | Keble College, Oxford
SUMMARY AND ONGOING WORK
Summary
• Water availability in the basin is changing
• Sediment load is a major problem for water storage
• Collaborative water allocation improves climate
resilience in arid downstream Woredas
Ongoing work
• Add more regulations and policy options
• Future population and economic growth
• Link with groundwater model MODFLOW

13.
Funded by: