The threat of drought

Nearly 11 million people lived in the horn of Africa around 1900. Today, the number of inhabitants in Ethiopia has reached roughly 90 million in an area about three times the size of Germany.

"So of course we have to find a way to produce more food for the people," the farmers said. According to a project leader from the German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), Ethiopians have to find a way to use their water resources more effectively in order to do this.

"There is enough water in the country," the project leader said.

But figures by the Ethiopian government show that 2.7 million people in the eastern lowlands and in the south suffer from extreme drought and famine - despite the fact that there are 12 large rivers in Ethiopia.

The urgent need for sustainable solutions

The idea that social and environmental change has to come from society itself is widespread in educated circles.

"That which man can destroy, he can - at least in part - also repair," said engineer Tsegawbezu Teketel at his office in Addis Ababa. He and a group of friends have planted 70,000 saplings in an area just north of the capital. When the rainy season starts, the trees will be transplanted onto the dry dam embankments.

The trees will form a natural barrier to stop the earth and debris sliding into the dam and blocking the power generators. The state electricity board has agreed to provide fencing to protect the plantations. It's a smart step towards self-help in a country whose economy is two-thirds subsidized by foreign aid.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, 40 percent of Ethiopia was woodland. But most of the people use wood for cooking, heating and home building, leaving only 10 percent of the country's forests remaining. This excessive deforestation has robbed the landscape of its natural barriers. There is no longer any protection against soil erosion and the resulting flash floods caused by heavy rainfall. Newly planted seeds are washed away.

"This can lead to the devastation of whole swathes of land, as it happened in the north for example," said Mekonen Ayana from Arba-Minch University.

Water storage

In Ethiopia, environmentalism is largely a political matter.

"It's about irrigation projects and street building, land rights for farmers and forced re-settlement," said Argaw Ashine, who heads an environmental radio project run by the German Heinrich Boell Foundation. "It is about multi-million pound aid programs and it's about corruption."

For the courageous 25-year-old, the country's democratization process is happening too slowly. He said it is obvious that the lack of environmental awareness is directly linked to poverty and educational deficits. A free media that might help to create awareness does not exist.

"Development is good, but modern development has to take the environment into account to truly be sustainable," said the head of the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Agency. It's a sound argument - except that only six percent of the country receives any water at all. A working water storage system is not sufficiently developed, even at its source, the Blue Nile. There is hardly any infrastructure in place to implement water-saving mechanisms.

Tadese has chosen to help himself. The government has leased him half an acre of land east of Addis Ababa. He channels water onto his avocado plants using a contraption made from plastic bottles. He also grows guavas, lemon, apples and corn. On one of his small meadows, he even has cows grazing. The farmer proudly pulls up water from a well using an old tin bucket.

"I haven't known drought yet, but I am prepared," he said.

Authors: Haile Amlak Kassaye/Peter Zimmermann
Editor: Sabina Casagrande