Baseline report of groundwater development in pilot watersheds Amhara, Ethiopia

The aim of the REACH Fragile Environments Observatory is to evaluate the contribution of Sustainable Land Management practices to water security in fragile ecosystems and to share results for evidence-based up-scaling. The REACH project is financed by DFID and implemented by the University of Oxford. The Water and Land Resource Centre (WLRC) of Addis Ababa University is the lead implementing partner in Ethiopia and the SLM-focused activity is implemented in two learning watersheds (Aba Gerima and Debreyacob) located in two districts (Bahirdar Zuria and Mecha) of the Amhara National Regional State.

In the two selected learning watersheds, IRC is supporting the WLRC to further understand the groundwater component of the water balance This report presents the baseline information from May 2017 covering 799 wells (758 family wells and 41 community wells) and includes data on 41 water samples. The following results have been found:
1) Most survey respondents (>65%) have no formal education:
2) Frequently users have more than one well, in (>51%) of well-owners in Aba Gerima even moe than 51%
3) Most wells constructed after 2006, peaking in 2013-14, with Most of the poorer well-owners constructed wells only after 2010
4) Most additional wells are constructed for irrigation:
5) More family well-owners irrigated around 0.2 hectares of land using their wells
6) Most respondents drink water without any treatment:
7) Significant numbers (24-50%) of the households do not have toilets and defecate in the open