UN warns of pitfalls in water harvesting

A central pillar of Ethiopia’s fight to end dependency on food aid is facing pitfalls that could jeopardise its success, the UN warned on Wednesday. The ambitious water harvesting scheme has been hit by “design flaws”, a “lack of skilled personnel” to build ponds and “shortages of materials”, said the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Ethiopia. “Currently a very large number of completed tanks simply don’t hold water and are leaking,” it added in a report. OCHA believes that water harvesting, if adapted to local situations and implemented in a “flexible manner”, would prove vital in the fight against preventing food shortages. But, it said, that while water harvesting “can have an important role in achieving food security” current limitations must be overcome. The report stressed the need to slow down the programme and improve monitoring to learn from mistakes. It warned that safety issues had not been “adequately addressed” as “death by drowning” was common. The spread of waterborne diseases was also being investigated. More than 12 million people regularly face severe water shortages in drought-stricken Ethiopia, and water harvesting which harnesses rainwater, aims to overcome the scarcity. OCHA stated that water harvesting which focuses only on ponds and tanks “is also not an enduring solution” to underlying water scarcity problems in Ethiopia, which have often been exacerbated by mismanagement. It pointed to deforestation and over-exploitation of natural resources by a “rapidly growing rural population” which had left rivers silted up. “In many places the schemes implemented are not the most appropriate ones,” OCHA added. “Efficient monitoring does not exist due to capacity constraints.” In two regions of Ethiopia that face major chronic food shortages – Amhara and Tigray – a massive water harvesting programme has been launched. “In many respects water is the most crucial element in the lives of Ethiopian people,” OCHA noted in its report which was carried out in the two regions.