Tana and Beles Integrated Water Resources Development Project

The Tana Beles Project, which directly benefited about 400,000 people, is an Ethiopian national project that was implemented from 2011 to 2016. ENTRO provided earmarked support to the program that was used to support and augment the national program and ensure that transboundary impacts were taken into consideration in the watershed management activities. The project piloted natural resource conservation and rehabilitation of degraded lands in three severely degraded sub-watersheds - Rib, Jema, and Gumera. The three sub-watersheds cover an area of over 79,288 hectares spread over six districts (Woredas). The project objective was to develop enabling institutions and investments for integrated planning, management, and development in the Tana and Beles Sub-basins to accelerate sustainable growth. Project interventions included providing access to clean drinking water and providing farming inputs (to gain community confidence); supporting alternative income-generating activities such as beekeeping and livestock rearing; implemented physical (e.g. soil bunds and trenches) and biological (e.g. increasing soil cover by planting trees and fodder crops) treatments to slow and reverse degradation, and developing an Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) plan for the Tana and Beles sub-basins. Community members were also involved in an innovative monitoring and evaluation of hydrological and sedimentation process of the affected watersheds. The project also supported training of watershed management experts from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan and sponsored study tours within the Nile Bains and to China and India. An intermediate outcome that was achieved was the creation of the Tana and Beles Sub-basin Offices.

Some of the quantitative achievements of the project are the following: 23 hydrometric stations rehabilitated and 7 new stations constructed; 20 groundwater monitoring stations were established; 19 flood early warning stations established and 1 weather radar installed; a water quality monitoring network comprising 25 sampling stations was established; and 96 samples were taken and analysed; watershed development plans for 163 community watersheds were prepared; 44,355 households adopted improved soil and water management practices; 7,671 ha have been planted with new forest; 5,506 ha of existing community forests were protected; 14 small scale irrigation schemes with an irrigation command area of 1,000 ha were rehabilitated benefiting 3,300 households. 14 irrigation cooperatives were established; 18 primary schools were rehabilitated and 91 primary schools were provided with equipment; 15 health posts were rehabilitated while 36 health posts were provided with equipment; 6 village water supply schemes were rehabilitated benefiting 74,000 people; and 26,066 farmers trained in soil and water conservation and watershed management measures.