Dire Dawa Case Study

1.2 Statement of the Problem

As cited in Exnner and Spadling, 1993, Groundwater pollution with nitrate is a global problem in many parts of the world; groundwater is the source of drinking, agricultural, industrial and domestic uses. In Ethiopia the degree of pollution is generally not large except the surface waters of Addis Ababa and groundwater of Dire Dawa city. Nitrate is one of the major contaminants in urban area in different parts of the world including agricultural areas where fertilizers are being extensively used. The possible sources for the enrichment of nitrate in both cities could likely be waste disposal in the urbanized areas and agricultural activities in rural areas and also the combined effects in some others. The nitrate

The city consists of mainly unconsolidated permeable alluvium deposit that can easily be penetrated by disposing waste water. Percolation of wastewater is also facilitated by gently dipping or almost flat nature of the topography of the city. Groundwater table is encountered at shallow depth in the northern segment of the town that is as low as ten meters below ground level. In the city and in its surrounding area, there are numerous urban and rural agricultural activities such as Tony farm, chat farm, Amdael dairy farm, Hafecat dairy, and other small-scale cattle breeding and horticulture producers in the city. Generally, the agricultural inputs and by-products are the major components of wastes and a probability to connect with the groundwater system. The additional possible source of water pollution, which can be inferred, is cemeteries which are away from the compounds. The Muslim and Christian cemetery sites are in the inner part of the city and near to Dechatu River. In addition the sources of pollutants are closely associated with land use pattern and to some extent to population density in the