A group of senior government officials, academics, investors and diplomats met last week, with an aim to rehabilitate the Rift Valley lakes, specifically those around the town of Bishoftu (Debre Zeit), 45Km south east of Addis Abeba.

The outcome of the July 12th meeting was the creation of the Strategic Alliance Group, a new assembly of concerned stakeholders concerned about how much the ecosystem in these areas has been affected by pollution, deforestation, land degradation and harmful utilization of water from the lakes.

The Group comprises members such as Mesfin Abebe (PhD), advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister, Shiberu Tedela (PhD), a private consultant, Sirage Bekele, head of the Oromia Investment Protection Agency, Tsegaye Abebe, head of the Horticultural Exporters Association, and Jonny C. Poleyma, First Secretary at the Dutch Embassy in Addis Abeba.

In the meeting, the Group was mandated to explore sources of financing in the international donor community to rehabilitate the 10 lakes found in the Rift Valley. Experts widely agree that many of the lakes are victims of overuse and environmental neglect.

The lakes around Bishoftu are especially used as dumping grounds for household waste. Forest resources surrounding the lakes have seriously deteriorated in the last five years too.

“We sued to swim and go fishing,” said Shewangizaw Birru, a resident of Kebele 08, one of the three kebeles that borders the Bishoftu Lake. “We can do none of that now.”

Shewangizaw said it is impossible to find fish today, and that the water has a bad smell.

Father south, the Zeway, Shala and Langano lakes have declining water catchment capacity, enough to alarm the region’s Environment Protection Agency and science faculty at Addis Abeba University’s Science Faculty, both of whom organized last week’s workshop.

There are close to 626 water pumps operating near Zeway Lake, with each pump pulling 1,000lt per second out of the lake, said Sirage. The expansion of flower farms on the Addis-Jimma-Awassa corridor has also put additional pressure on the eco-balance of the area: over 372ht of plots are cultivated by 40 flower exporting companies.

“None of these farms have conducted an environmental impact assessment,” said an expert from the Science Faculty of the Addis Abeba University.

Mesfin told Fortune that the Group is taking upon itself the responsibility to rehabilitate the area and pass on a balanced ecosystem to coming generations.