Facts about Tigray- Ethiopia

fig. 1 tigray and south eastern zone
Ethiopia is endowed with vast water resources with 12 major rivers and 22 natural lakes (Tarekegn, 2004). Professional estimates indicated that the country has an annual surface runoff about 110 billon cubic meters from 12 major drainage basins (Woube, 1999), only 4% of which is used (FAO, 1990). Changes in land use and land cover are pervasive, increasingly rapid, and can have adverse impacts and implications at local and regional level of hydrological cycle (Tafere, 2006).

Ethiopia is a landlocked country in the East of Africa. With the involvement of 90% of the population, agriculture is the major source of employment, revenue and export earnings. The total area of Ethiopia is about 110 million ha of which 67% is arid or semi-arid. With about 90% living in rural areas, the population of Ethiopia has raised from 22 million in 1961 to about 69 million at present with an average annual growth rate of 3%.

Ethiopia is characterised by famine as a result of high population pressure, resource base degradation, and insufficient rainfall for rainfed production. With 22 major drought occurrences in the past 40 years alone, the country generally faces an annual cereal food deficit of 0.03 – 3.3 million tons. On the other hand, it is endowed with a huge annual water resource potential of about 110 billion m3, a potentially irrigable land of 3.6 million ha and productive manpower of about 48% of the total population. However, only about 3 billion m3 of the water resource and 190,000 ha of the potentially irrigable land is utilised so far. On the other hand researcher estimated that Ethiopia contributes about 75 billion m3 of the 84-billion m3 Nile River discharge that annually reaches the Aswan dam. The plan of the Government is to construct 1,000 earthen dams in two of the major river basins, Abay (Blue Nile) in Amhararegion and Tekeze in Tigray.

Tigray, located in the northern part of the country (Figure 1), is one of the most drought prone and food-insecure regions of Ethiopia. Rainfed agriculture is characterised by low productivity however, if, 50% of this runoff would be used for irrigation, half-a-million hectare of land can be irrigated, which would be sufficient to feed three times the present population of Tigray. In Tigray the estimated irrigation potential is about 325,000 ha out of which only about 15,000 ha is irrigated through traditional practices.

The Commission for Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Rehabilitation in Tigray
(CoSAERT) was established in 1994 to construct 500 dams and to irrigate 50,000 ha within ten years. The principal objectives were to change the agrarian system to widespread small-scale irrigated agriculture and to gradually attain self-sufficiency in food production.

what was the out come of the planned project by CoSEART. funny have a look at the papers in the link