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|  | | Watershed Management, Ethiopia | | | | | | ‘Watershed management’ initiatives undertaken by Self Help’s staff in Ethiopia in 2005 to rehabilitate land are beginning to transform the local landscape and have a positive impact on the lives of nearby communities.
The sites, which had become degraded as a result of woodland clearance, overgrazing and other pressures were the target of a broad programme of activities effected by local villagers, following consultation, sensitisation and training provided by programme staff.
In the Fendisha area of Self Help’s Alemaya II project a severely eroded gulley and more than 60 hectares of land was rehabilitated – with a range of soil conservation measures being put into place including the construction of check dams, soil bunds, and an extensive planting programme undertaken.
A total of 50,000 seedlings were provided by the project for the work, which saw acacia saligna, saspania saspan, pigeon pea, gravilia, elephant grass, Rhodes grass and vetiver all being planted in the eroded area, while fruit trees including guava and papaya seedlings were also distributed.
The gulley area, which the run off of torrential seasonal rains had cut through the landscape were also the subject of other direct rehabilitative measures, with two large dam walls and associated constructions being built by villagers with materials and technical support from Self Help staff.
These have had the result of trapping water within the gulley area, and at the same time retaining silt and soil, and reinstating soil within a ravine that in many areas had reached bed-rock.
‘In a situation like this you must first get the water to slow down – from a run to a walk, and then try to get it to stand-still, so that the soil can be replenished, and the water can seep into the ground and thus bring up the water-table in the area’, explains Kebede Gudissa, Self Help’s natural resource officer in Alemaya II.
‘Land and soil are the base for development for the people in this region. If it becomes barren and degraded they have little chance’, he added.
A community based management committee has been elected to oversee the area being rehabilitated, and is charged with ensuring that villagers do not graze their livestock within the 60 hectare site while the process of restoration is underway. ‘No animals are permitted within the area at this early stage in the process, but farmers can go into the enclosed area and cut fodder from a number of species of trees which we have planted’, Kebede Gudissa says.
Water from the dammed area has became available to local farmers to irrigate their adjoining fields however, while tests carried out to the water table show that ground water is now being found at a level of 10-15 metres below ground – as compared to a depth of over 30 metres, which it had fallen to prior to the watershed management project.
In early 2007 the project will organise farmers into irrigation co-ops, so that water pumps can be provided to different groups, and a farmers association can be developed for the purpose of marketing and distribution of surplus produce.
Meanwhile, in an associated activity over 40 families in the Fendisha area have been supported with loans and with training to begin new income generating activities. Under this scheme six local women have used loans to purchase goats for fattening, while others have become involved in vegetable production and other activities.
As well as having two goats, widowed mother of eight Amena Aimar has become involved in sorghum and vegetable production, after receiving training and seed stock from the Self Help project.
Self Help’s watershed management initiatives were undertaken after project staff took part in a week long training course in watershed and natural resource management in India in 2005. |
|  | | Local farmers involved in the work |  | | A channel built to carry overflow water from one of the gulley dams. At the bottom is a cement pond, which prevents further erosion resulting from the fall of water |  | | Several months into the dry season and water remains in the dam |  | | Some of the extensive planting that has been carried out | | |
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| | ‘We learned so much on that visit – and the activities we are now engaged in are a direct result of that learning’, says Ethiopian Assistant Director Abeba Amene. | | | |
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| | | | | Self Help Africa is a limited liability company. Company number: 105601 Charity No. 6663 (Ireland)
The organisation has offices in Ireland at: Annefield House, Dublin Road, Portlaoise, Co. Laois Tel: 00 353 (0)57 8694034 - Fax: 00 353 (0)57 8694038, and in the United Kingdom at : Second Floor Suite, Westgate House, Dickens Court, Off Hills Lane, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY1 1QU. Tel : 0044-(0)1743 277170
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