Relentless Water Demand Growth Drains Ethiopia's Lake Harmaya In A Generation - Seattle PI

[hatrack]

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Ahmed had heard the lake was shrinking, that the shore he knew was no longer at the lake's edge, that the waves retreated a little farther each year. His family tried to warn him, but Ahmed was thousands of miles away and his memories held firm despite the disturbing reports. He came home to Haramaya for an extended visit in January. When he arrived, it was night, dark and quiet. Ahmed woke the next morning and stepped out into early sunlight. Staring across a vast empty field, he watched farmers herd cattle and goats through the empty lake bed that was once Lake Haramaya. Then he sat down on a dusty patch of grass and cried. "When I left, the lake was full. There were resort houses and all of the local marriages happened along its banks," Ahmed said. "Now the lake has become a field."


Other Ethiopian lakes may be headed for similar fates. Like Haramaya, lakes in the Rift Valley such as Awasa, Abiyata and Ziway are reporting shrinkage. The forces converging against these lakes read like a nightmare laundry list of 21st century environmental ills. "There's the erosion, population increases, irresponsible local farming practices and industrial overuse of the lake," said Bushra Mohammed Reshid of the Harar Water and Sanitation Department. Drought, climate change and government lack of interest also make the list.

Farmers get a lot of the blame around these parts for having abused the nearby lakes. They're accused of having relentlessly pumped water from Haramaya, until the lake, a closed catchment already suffering from increasing temperatures and erratic rainfall, drained like a bathtub with the plug pulled out. Their reputation was further sullied, especially among nearby Harar's 91,000 residents, when a group of rogue farmers was accused of sabotaging water pipes serving as the city's sole water source, breaking connections and siphoning off the escaping water for irrigation. A few of the farmers are still in jail for the offense.

But farmers have been working in this region for generations, and while population growth in both rural and urban areas has strained delicate water resources, a little bitter leaf with thirsty roots deserves at least some of the blame for the disappearance of Haramaya.

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/356178_water24.html

[jody]

1. No different than the AL, GA, FL fight over water and the coming Southwest fight over a dwindling

water supply from the Colorado River.