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The United Kingdom (UK)-based consulting firm
Halcrow told the government that future floods in
Dire Dawa can be prevented, and suggested two
multi-million Birr plans for protecting the city,
which was thrashed by its worst flood in history
last year.
Halcrow finalised its study on the sustainable
mitigation of floods in Dire Dawa town and submitted
it to the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR), on
Wednesday November 27. The recommendations of the
study would be submitted to the Early Disaster
Warning Committee headed by Addisu Legesse, deputy
Prime Minister and minister of Agriculture and Rural
Development, within two weeks, according to an
official at the MoWR.
The firm came up with two options. One option is to
plant trees in areas where the flood waters converge
and to construct a five kilometre-long wall on
either side of the town. According to the report,
this plan, which would cost 217 million Br, would
protect the town from flood strikes for two
centuries. The second option is to divert the flood
before it hits the town and form an artificial lake.
This option, which requires 280 million Br, would
only provide protection for 25 years.
"The money required is too much," Abdulaziz Mohammed
told Fortune. "This should be carried out by the
federal government because we do not have the
capacity."
Dire Dawa, 501Km east of Addis Abeba, was hit by a
severe flash flood on August 6, 2006 in what is
considered to be the worst in its history. Dire Dawa,
which was established in 1910, has regularly
suffered flooding. Last year's flood, however,
surpassed them all in loss of human life, according
to local elders. The flood in August 1981 was
previously considered the worst in the town's
history.
Last year's flood left 256 dead. Authorities in Dire
Dawa believe that the real death toll may be even
higher as there could be others that were not found
during the search. The flood also damaged 50 million
Br worth of property, including major or total
damage to 1,000 houses in the flood prone areas of
the town: Addis Ketema, Coca Kebele, Dechatu, Ketira,
Hafekat and Bahiretsige. Electric and telephone
lines were destroyed, roads and the main bus
terminals of the cities were buried under sand.
What is alarming to both the city authorities and
officials of the federal government is that the
frequency of intense flooding has increased;
previously, a large flood would strike every 20
years, then every decade since the 1980s, and now
possibly every five years.
Shocked by the disaster, the federal government gave
the responsibility of tackling this predicament
sustainably to the MoWR. The Ministry at the time
had commissioned Halcrow to study the susceptibility
of Awash Basin areas to the flood for 23 million Br.
The various studies conducted, however, did not
include the city of Dire Dawa, until last year's
tragedy prompted the MoWR to ask for an additional
study on this town, which cost an extra 470,000
British pounds (8.83 million Br), financed by a loan
from the African Development Bank.
The other study the company is conducting is the
Modjo Bad Land study, which focuses on the abatement
of erosion. The continuous erosion of the area is
affecting the environment in two ways; fertility of
the farming land is decreasing and the soil is
flowing to the Koka Dam and Awash River through the
Modjo and Jogo rivers.
An expert at the MoWR told Fortune that the capacity
of the dam to hold water is declining.
Based on the water shed management study, MoWR would
carry out forest, water and soil protection
activities with the MoARD, and the construction
would be awarded to an expert through a tender,
sources disclosed.
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