Ethiopia

Question 1

Drought in 2008 electricity effects

Answer 1

Electricity was only available for 5 days a week at best and in some parts of the capital was restricted to only six hours a day.

Question 2

Lack of bottled water after the 2008 drought

Answer 2

One of Ethiopia’s hydro-electric dam was not able to operate leading to a reduction in electricity supply. Highland Spring cut back from 700,00 bottles a week to 620,000. Abyssinia, cut back from 40,000 to 20,000 bottle a week.

Question 3

Growth in GDP

Answer 3

Since 2003 Ethiopia has seen a growth in GDP that has been equal to or, at times, greater than most other developing economies.

Question 4

Why Ethiopia is poor, according to the World Bank

Answer 4

Because it does not use its enormous water potential properly. the World Bank has developed a Country Water Resources Assistance Strategy to help Ethiopia.

Question 5

Low Tech solution: harvesting the rain: the problem

Answer 5

A farmer in the Tigray region of Ethiopia hopes the rain will come out and then a few weeks later is worrying that the harvest will fail through lack of water.

Question 6

HTR: Government suggestion

Answer 6

In 2006, the Tigray Regional government suggested to harvest the rain and suggested that a pit would hold 60m3 of water.

Question 7

HTR: what was done

Answer 7

He dug a small pit and borrowed money to pay for a blue plastic sheet to line it.

Question 8

HTR: the initiative

Answer 8

The initiative is part of a government backed scheme, which has set targets for local officials and left the countryside punctuated with blue pits.

Question 9

HTR: criticism

Answer 9

They have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and left many farmers with debts they cannot afford to repay.

Question 10

High-tech solution: The Tekeze Dam: aim

Answer 10

To construct the highest dam of its type in Africa.

Question 11

TD - built where, how long, how much water can it hold, land it will irrigate:

Answer 11

Being built on the Tekeze River which flows through the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan, where it joins the Nile. It is over 600km. The dam will hold back 9 billion m3 of water that will be used to harvest 60,000 hectares of land, as well as generate electricity.

Question 12

TD - Cost

Answer 12

The cost of the project is estimated to be $224 million and , when finished, will be the 10th hydro-electric power plant in Ethiopia.

Question 13

TD - Built by:

Answer 13

the dam is being built by the Chinese Water Resources and Hydro-power Engineering Company and was awarded the contract by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation. It was chosen because ot its experience working on the three gorges dam.

Question 14

TD: electricity pylons:

Answer 14

Electrcity pylons stretching 105km have been built to connect the dam to the regional capital. Once complete, the project will supply electricity to Ethiopia’s national grid, as well as being sold to neighboring countries to earn much needed foreign currency.

Question 15

Intermediate technology: small dams: idea by

Answer 15

The Relief Society for Tigray believes that the priority for water development in Ethiopia should be for many thousands of small and medium size dams rather than large scale projects.

Question 16

SD - first construction:

Answer 16

A small dam (around 15 meters high and 300 meters long) was constructed near the village of Adis Nifas to meet the more targeted needs than those of the Tekeze. The dam was built by the local people with support from the Relief Society for Tigray, which provided machinery and money while the villagers supplied the labor. The dam is made from local materials

Question 17

SD - land given to families

Answer 17

Each family in the village has been given a quarter of a hectare of irrigated land, as well as fruit tree seedlings and elephant grass to plant into the earth walls that divide up the walls to help stop the walls eroding away.