Ethiopia says not adequately exploiting water resources
Aug 2, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopia has not adequately exploited its water resources to meet its macroeconomic objective, Ethiopia’s State Minister of Water Resources Adunga Jebessa said on Wednesday.
Although endowed with vast water resources, it has not been able to tap the potential until now due to lack of technological know-how and other problems, said Adunga .
He made the remarks while opening a three-day workshop organized to review a report on Phase II Genale-Dawa River Basin Integrated Resources Development Master Plan Study.
Adunga said the Ethiopian government has been taking efforts to improve water resource management of the country and has taken river basin as a fundamental planning unit to manage natural resources in the river basins for the development of the national economy.
The Integrated Basin Development Master Plan is being prepared on Genale-Dawa with the objective of promoting conservation and control of the inefficient use and depletion of water, land and ecological resources within the basin, Adunga said.
The study is carried out in a phased approach, collect and analyze information in Phase I, prepare pre-feasibility study and master plan in Phase II, prepare three water resource development projects at a feasibility level in Phase III.
The Genale-Dawa River Basin is one of Ethiopia’s 12 river basins located in southeast Ethiopia, comprising Genale, Dawa and Weyib rivers and their tributaries.
The project is being undertaken with a 52.4 million birr (about 6 million U.S. dollars) budget, allocated by the African Development Bank and the Ethiopian government.
Ethiopia’s late emperor Haile Selassie once called his country the water tower of Africa. Endowed with abundant water resources, Ethiopia has the potential to generate 30,000 mw of hydroelectric power. However, it is able to generate only 800 mw now. Some 17 percent of the 80 million Ethiopians (about 11.5 million households) have access to electricity.
(ST/Xinhua)