Water Resources Management in Ethiopia: Implications for the Nile ...

but their impacts on water, energy, and environmental insecurity are not known. Moreover, Abate focused only on the three main water sectors (irrigation, hydropower, and domestic water supplies), without giving due consideration to such secondary water issues as floods, pollution, and health and did not inculcate the need for the development of rainwater harvesting systems and alternative energy sources that can reduce the need for hydropower. Even more recent studies are limited to irrigation (Awulachew et al., 2005; Awulachew, McCartney, Ibrahim, & Shiferaw, 2008), hydropower (Block, Strzepek, & Rajagopalan, 2007), environmental impacts of large dams in the highlands (Shiferaw, McCartney, Sileshi, & Woldu, 2008; Tefera & Sterk, 2006; Abebe, McCartney, Douven, & Lentvaar, 2008), or flood management through dam construction (Achamyelew, 2003). Only one study has been conducted on environmental and socioeconomic assessments of large dams on the lowland flood plains occupied by pastoral nomads (Kloos, 1982) and none has been conducted on flood monitoring and forecasting at the watershed level (Moges, 2007), hydrological impacts of deforestation and land degradation, chemical water pollution, or negative health aspects of water resources development at the national level. Information is also needed on technologies and approaches recently introduced in Ethiopia and the other Nile riparian countries, including community approaches to water management, rainwater water harvesting and storage, climate change, trade in virtual water, biofuel production, renewable energy technologies other than hydropower, and antipollution measures, described in chapters 2, 3, and 12.

This book argues for a pluralist and integrated approach to water development and management, emphasizing the need for greater civil society participation in the planning, management, and governance of water projects in Ethiopia, where the government has traditionally been the predominant actor. Strategies are needed that substantively integrate local communities, socioeconomic and health parameters, as well as ecosystems into intersectoral development plans to meet water needs at the local, national, and river basin levels. The integrated water resources management (IWRM) approach, which emerged in the 1990s as a response to the worldwide water crisis, can meet these goals. Its key objectives