Essay About Drought In Ethiopia

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

The major development goals of the country are poverty reduction and economic development that contribute significantly to the betterment of livelihood. Hence, the country's development policies and strategies are geared towards this end.(National Investment Brief,2008).

The current economic and developmental activities of the country indicate that it has been engaged in exploiting its resources, and seize the opportunities to alleviate poverty, rise income of its people and register rebust economic growth in the country. In this regard, the water resources of the country will play major role in domestic use and bosting agricultural production.

According to Ethiopian WRM policy,1999, the overall goal of Water Resources Policy is to enhance and promote all national efforts towards efficient, equitable and optimum

As per the recent assessment conducted by UNICEF in 196 drought affected woredas of the country, the result of the 2002/3 drought led most perennial rivers to dry up while most seepage type springs decreased their yield considerabily. Although there is a decline in dynamic water levels of some wells, shallow and deep drilled wells were able to survive the drought and serving people critically in need of water and saved lifes.

At a Ministerial Conference held at Kyoto (2003) emphasis was put on groundwater resources as: “Whilst groundwater storage is vast (over 99% of fresh water reserves), its rate of replenishment is finite and mainly limited to the shallower aquifers, whose quality can also be seriously (and even irreversibly) degraded. Excessive resource development, uncontrolled urban and industrial discharges, and agricultural intensification are causing increasingly widespread degradation of