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Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)

Ethiopia: Protecting Dire Dawa from Floods Will Cost Millions, Firms Says

Wudineh Zenebe

3 December 2007

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The United Kingdom (UK)-based consulting firm Halcrow told the government that future floods in Dire Dawa can be prevented, and suggested two multi-million Birr plans for protecting the city, which was thrashed by its worst flood in history last year.

Halcrow finalised its study on the sustainable mitigation of floods in Dire Dawa town and submitted it to the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR), on Wednesday November 27. The recommendations of the study would be submitted to the Early Disaster Warning Committee headed by Addisu Legesse, deputy Prime Minister and minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, within two weeks, according to an official at the MoWR.

The firm came up with two options. One option is to plant trees in areas where the flood waters converge and to construct a five kilometre-long wall on either side of the town. According to the report, this plan, which would cost 217 million Br, would protect the town from flood strikes for two centuries. The second option is to divert the flood before it hits the town and form an artificial lake. This option, which requires 280 million Br, would only provide protection for 25 years.

"The money required is too much," Abdulaziz Mohammed told Fortune. "This should be carried out by the federal government because we do not have the capacity."

Dire Dawa, 501Km east of Addis Abeba, was hit by a severe flash flood on August 6, 2006 in what is considered to be the worst in its history. Dire Dawa, which was established in 1910, has regularly suffered flooding. Last year's flood, however, surpassed them all in loss of human life, according to local elders. The flood in August 1981 was previously considered the worst in the town's history.

Last year's flood left 256 dead. Authorities in Dire Dawa believe that the real death toll may be even higher as there could be others that were not found during the search. The flood also damaged 50 million Br worth of property, including major or total damage to 1,000 houses in the flood prone areas of the town: Addis Ketema, Coca Kebele, Dechatu, Ketira, Hafekat and Bahiretsige. Electric and telephone lines were destroyed, roads and the main bus terminals of the cities were buried under sand.

What is alarming to both the city authorities and officials of the federal government is that the frequency of intense flooding has increased; previously, a large flood would strike every 20 years, then every decade since the 1980s, and now possibly every five years.

Shocked by the disaster, the federal government gave the responsibility of tackling this predicament sustainably to the MoWR. The Ministry at the time had commissioned Halcrow to study the susceptibility of Awash Basin areas to the flood for 23 million Br. The various studies conducted, however, did not include the city of Dire Dawa, until last year's tragedy prompted the MoWR to ask for an additional study on this town, which cost an extra 470,000 British pounds (8.83 million Br), financed by a loan from the African Development Bank.

The other study the company is conducting is the Modjo Bad Land study, which focuses on the abatement of erosion. The continuous erosion of the area is affecting the environment in two ways; fertility of the farming land is decreasing and the soil is flowing to the Koka Dam and Awash River through the Modjo and Jogo rivers.

An expert at the MoWR told Fortune that the capacity of the dam to hold water is declining.

Based on the water shed management study, MoWR would carry out forest, water and soil protection activities with the MoARD, and the construction would be awarded to an expert through a tender, sources disclosed.

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