Can hard options offer a solution?

Awash River Basin needs hydraulic infrastructure that can store and distribute freshwater effectively to ensure the basin is resilient against inter- and intra-annual rainfall variability. This infrastructure should ultimately reduce the basin's vulnerability to climate change. Importantly, the development and management of this infrastructure must ensure an equitable freshwater resource use between basin water users and must not impede freshwater resources. Arguably, it is only once the basin has met these requirements that freshwater availability will have truly improved. 

This post will examine whether hard options, specifically large-scale dams and irrigation schemes, can meet these important requirements. The Awash River Basin was regarded to have an outstanding potential for large-scale irrigation (Carr, 2017). Unsurprisingly, the basin contains three hydro-power plants, with the first, Koko Dam, built in 1967 (Figure 1). These schemes are managed by public agencies and are funded by public resources and have the main aim of bringing about socio-economic development in the basin. The reservoirs were built to meet municipal water demands as well as irrigation water for various agricultural demands, including sugar cane plantations. The dams also help protect against flooding in addition to generating electricity for the basin (Muller et al., 2016).

Figure 1: Koko Dam under construction in 1960

In theory, hard options seem to meet those water infrastructure requirements, especially the storing and distributing of freshwater resources. However, these hard options arguably do not ensure an equitable access to freshwater resources; there are a number of upstream-downstream conflicts, which have resulted from the growing demands and competition for a finite resource. Poor coordination between users has exacerbated these conflicts, including (Mosello et al., 2015):

• Koko reservoir releasing water based on power demands of the national level and are not sensitive to the basin itself; the releases do not align with the water needs of downstream irrigators. 
• High flow in the dry season occurs during the night when farmers are not irrigating. 

And there are now plans for expansions in irrigation projects, with the Wonji sugar cane plantation wanting to increase from 6,000 ha to 22,000 ha. There are concerns by farmers that the expansion would decrease their water availability, which is already minimal during the dry season (Mosello et al., 2015). Models by Muller et al. (2016) also predict that this increase stress on the system would result in water deficits. Hard options do not offer a way for Awash River Basin to not only improve its freshwater availability but also its resilience to climate change. Hard options instead have the potential to further limit freshwater access.

It may not be feasible to get rid of such large-scale developments in the basin, but it is possible to limit further future developments that would amplify current impacts. Similarly, it is also feasible to mitigate these impacts of large-scale developments through the implementation of proper water management within the basin - something I will be exploring next!