Evaluation of Existing Environmental Protection Policies and Practices vis-à-vis Sustainable Water Resources Development in Didessa Sub-basin, West Ethiopia

摘要

In the effort to alleviate poverty and bring about sustainable development, Ethiopia is on the move to optimallyutilize its natural resources, and hence the country has launched many water resources development projectsaiming at the intensification of agricultural production and hydropower development. The Didessa Sub-basinis one of such watersheds where a number of large water management projects have been planned. Themain objective of this study was to evaluate the environmental impact assessment (EIA) practices againstthe country’s existing environmental protection and water resources management legislations, with anemphasis on Arjo-Didessa Dam and Reservoir Project. Documents on environmental protection and waterresources management legislations, EIA report of the project and data on land use/cover and soils of thedam and reservoir area were considered for the study. The existence of EIA legislations and institutionswould create the impression that the government is determined to national and global environmental concerns.Due to the project, about 98.6 km 2 of land with grasslands and riverine forest cover, and fertile soils withconvenient land slope will be inundated by water. Besides, the role the community played in the projectplanning and EIA study was found to be inadequate. Although water withdrawal due to Arjo-Didessa IrrigationProject (about 19.75% of the mean annual stream flow at the dam site) is within the desired range ofsustainable water resources development; and the mean annual instream flow requirements of 0.9 billioncubic meters (BCM) is fully delivered, the study has shown that some of the important decision makingparameters of EIA like environmental flows assessment, dam-break analysis, environmental costs, andeconomic analysis, were bypassed, as observed from the EIA report of Arjo-Didessa Dam and ReservoirProject, although these are demanded by the environmental protection legislations.