The Awash Basin Authority (ABA) plans to build two additional dams which could help prevent water shortage at the region that has over 18 million inhabitants.

 

Authority Director General Getachew Gizaw said the dams, part of GTP II, would also help prevent flooding at the middle and lower Awash areas.

 

Previously, three dams, namely Koka, Kesem and Tendaho were built on the 1,250 -kms long and_4.6 billion cubic meters annual runoff capacity_Awash River.

 

However, the negative impact of the El Nino induced drought on the river and its beneficiaries was notable. During the drought period, the dams which were built on the river retained only 40 perc ent of their water volume.

 

As a result and in order to tackle the shortage, water rationing and allocation were carried out last year among over 73,000 people engaged in large and medium-scale irrigation development activities.___

 

According to Getachew, the rationing and allocation undertaken last year have born encouraging results, Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported.

Source : allafrica.com