Integrated rainwater management strategies for environment and resilience

Tilahun Amede

Nile Basin Development ChallengeScience and Reflection WorkshopAddis Ababa, 4-6 May 2011

• Crop livestock systems• Drought-prone, short rains• Degraded hillsides, eroded

farm lands• Livestock for draft and risk

management• Limited collective action;

search for alternative income • Poverty and resources

degradation • Small lake in the valley

bottom

AMARAW project; ILRI-IWMI project

• Community awareness;• Mapping of landscapes,

institutions, actors• Base lining, historical

perspectives;• Collective action schemes

(community lead, PA lead, local byelaws, fining..);

• Establishing farmer groups (gully group, forage group, tree group, livestock group etc.)

• Plan for action

Strategies

Participatory identification and testing of good practices

Availing technology options

Facilitating collective action (labour, resources..)

Political and institutional support

Practices…

- Degraded hillslopes are closed for grazing and wood cutting- From 2004 to 2007: 208 ha closed (+/- 40% of rangelands)- Distributed among 530 farmers - Contour trenches for improved water infiltration and planting of multi-purpose trees

Exclosures

open grazing exclosure

Before treatment productive water flow only about 50% After treatment productive water flow increased to 78%

Exclosure establishment

Open grazing Exclosure

Exclosures..Vegetation restoration results in restoration of ecosystem services:

-Supporting: soil formation, nutrient cycling

-Regulating: climate, water flows, ground water

-Provisioning: biomass (herbaceous, woody), non-wood forest products

-Biodiversity, birds, vegetation

-Reduced runoff, water quality

About 2.8 tonnes of DM ha-1 – Feed, energy and other uses Reduced the pressure on farmlands on biomass..

Watering pointsWater for multiple uses: irrigation (50%),

livestock (30%), domestic (20%)

Water for livestock drinking in the dry period (community ponds are empty)

Reduced walking distance from 9 km to 2 km; Energy is reduced from 1956 MJ ME / TLU to 584 MJ ME / TLU per year (Milk equivalent of 350 litre)

No change in water depleted for feed

Implications

Reduced erosion / land degradation Increase tree survival Overall system change Saving water resources

Upslope management protect reservoirs & irrigation schemes

Upslope management enabled regeneration of dried springs

With NBDC +…