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and trying to find its way into the modern world after the collapse of Haile Selassie's imperial regime in 1974. Worku Legesse's upbringing and early life in a village in the former Wello Administrative Region in the northeastern drought belt of Ethiopia provided him with valuable insights into the realities of that area's degraded environment and rural people's coping behavior during seasonal water scarcities and periodic droughts in the absence of effective and sustainable preventive government interventions. While many studies have been carried out by academics, government agencies, and aid organizations on water resources development and management in Ethiopia, most of them have been narrowly focused on disciplinary and sector-specific issues. Their scopes have been limited to examining the role of the natural environment, socioeconomic conditions, and political factors in the country's water problems across all water sectors (agriculture, hydropower, domestic water supply, health, and the environment), a shortcoming largely stemming from the scarcity of interdisciplinary studies in Ethiopia. Moreover, a broader transboundary perspective which recognizes that most of Ethiopia's water resources are located in the wider Nile Basin and must, therefore, be studied as an integral part of this larger hydrological and economic area is lacking.
In this book, we focus on managerial aspects in recognition of the overriding importance of sound management practices in achieving water security and, consequently, food and energy security, the top priorities of the Ethiopian government and many other governments in Africa, and the relatively neglected area of ecosystem water needs. Although Ethiopia and the other Nile Basin countries are keen on developing their water resources’ potential to meet urgent societal needs, there is an increasing emphasis on proper management as the most promising path to achieving water security rather than on the quantity of water that can be harnessed. This puts greater importance on government policy, social, economic, and cultural practices, needs, and preferences. A major theme of this book is the role the Ethiopian government and communities play in water resources management.
While this is primarily a review of the literature, conceptualization of the research problem and the chapter presentations are guided by both the experiences of the editors and the other contributors and the integrated water