Reservoir Conservation in a Micro-Watershed in Tigray, Ethiopian Highlands

Soil erosion in Ethiopian highlands has caused land deterioration due to moving nutrient-rich top soil to downstream reservoirs while leaving reservoirs dysfunctional due to sedimentation. Micro-watershed management by removing reservoir sediments and using them for reclaiming farmland, while using...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSustainability Vol. 11; no. 7; p. 2038
Main Authors Koda, Kazuhisa, Girmay, Gebreyohannes, Berihu, Tesfay, Nagumo, Fujio
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 05.04.2019
Subjects
Agricultural land
Agriculture
Construction materials
Cultivation
Dam construction
Fodder
Forage crops
Groundwater
Groundwater reservoirs
Housing
Outlets
Rainy season
Refilling
Reservoirs
Rivers
Soil erosion
Sustainability
Watersheds
Great Rift Valley
Japan
Ethiopia
Africa
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Summary:Soil erosion in Ethiopian highlands has caused land deterioration due to moving nutrient-rich top soil to downstream reservoirs while leaving reservoirs dysfunctional due to sedimentation. Micro-watershed management by removing reservoir sediments and using them for reclaiming farmland, while using reservoir water for irrigation, can be a potential solution to simultaneously address soil and water constraints and food security challenges. Still, there is knowledge gap before such a solution can be practically applied. The objective of this paper is to present potential solutions for the reservoir sedimentation problem and specifically highlight the utility of bathymetric survey using an echo-sounder to assess sediment volume. Our results indicated that the estimated reservoir sediment volume was 6400 m3 leading to a reclamation of 3.2 hectares by layering 0.2 m sediment. The sediment used for reclamation depicts neutral pH (7.3), high organic carbon (2.5%), available phosphorus (9.2 mg/kg) and exchangeable potassium (25 cmol(+)/kg). Garlic (Allium sativum) was planted in the reclaiming abandoned farmland and produced 7.1 t/ha of bulb on average. There is a potential of producing 2–3 horticultural crops per year. Thus, developing methods for scaling up potential farmland reclamation using reservoir sediment would contribute to degraded farmland restoration and food security in Ethiopia and beyond.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su11072038