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Benefits and Challenges of Dugout Rainwater Harvesting Ponds in Tigray Region, Ethiopia

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Rainwater-Smart Agriculture in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas

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Abstract

In Tigray, over 78,000 dugout ponds have been constructed since 2000. The objective was to alleviate the problem of recurrent drought that prevails in the region every five to ten years. However, it has been reported that most of the ponds are not functional. Therefore, this paper presents an assessment of the dugout pond construction in Tigray with a particular emphasis to challenges and technical problems and pinpoints the causes that led to the poor performance of the ponds. Thus, even though rainwater harvesting ponds have the potential to ensure availability of water for various uses and generate income for smallholders, poor performance levels and insufficient impacts to local communities were widely observed in the study area due to inadequate site selection, absence of biophysical survey during design and construction, leakage and evaporation losses, and poor management of the ponds.

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Acknowledgements

The author highly acknowledges the Tigray Water, Mines and Energy Bureau (TWMEB) (now Tigray Water Resources Development Bureau, (TWRDB)) for providing existing data for the research and Mekelle University for logistic support and small local research grant (registration number CNCS/MU-UMB/05/2012 and VPRCS/CNCS/RB/02/2015). The author is thankful for the comments and suggestions from four anonymous reviewers.

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  1. School of Earth Sciences, Mekelle University, P. O. Box 1202, Mekelle, Ethiopia

    Gebremedhin Berhane

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Correspondence to Gebremedhin Berhane .

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  1. Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

    Josep de Trincheria Gomez

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Berhane, G. (2018). Benefits and Challenges of Dugout Rainwater Harvesting Ponds in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. In: Leal Filho, W., de Trincheria Gomez, J. (eds) Rainwater-Smart Agriculture in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66239-8_14

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