Posts

A Sad But Temporary Goodbye

It’s been an interesting first term to my final year, entering previously unchartered territory by writing two blogs for two of my modules. I’ve learnt more than I thought I would from writing a blog and I hope that maybe you’ve all learnt a little from reading it. The complexity of the relationship between water and food has continually surprised me. I suppose coming from a place (Cornwall) where it rains a lot, is sometimes sunny and has plenty of tractors on the road, agriculture has never been something I have been overly concerned with, other than when it causes a traffic jam. Yet by looking at the relationship between water and food in Ethiopia I have realised the difficulties inherent in water management in areas where rainfall is far from regular and budgets are tight.   I would have liked to explore transboundary water conflicts in more detail, along with the various water management strategies employed across Ethiopia, as I certainly haven’t been comprehensive
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New Year New Ideas

I have come to realise that whilst I may have achieved one of my aims of this blog, to highlight that Africa isn’t a singular arid continent, I have failed to offer a suitable strategy for reducing the chronic water and food problems within Ethiopia. These problems are not unique and can be seen across Africa, however the solutions required are varied. It is evident that substantial water investments in agriculture are needed to improve the current situation, but I fear that my focus on groundwater potential and surface water irrigation in Egypt may have been misguided. Whilst irrigation from surface water and groundwater both offer valid ways forward for increasing agricultural yield, as it currently stands, Ethiopia remains one of the poorest countries in Africa with a heavy reliance on food assistance. Therefore, as I discovered in my last post , Ethiopia is unlikely to have the capacity for such large scale developments and rain-fed agriculture is expected to remain the dominant
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The Resources Beneath Our Feet

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Last week I touched upon large-scale engineering as a method of utilising, or even controlling, the water resources within Ethiopia in the form the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Whilst  not   directly relating to Ethiopian food production, it got me thinking about the role of engineering in improving Ethiopia’s agricultural output. Consequently, I’ve been doing some digging around the potential for groundwater extraction to supply water for irrigation. In this post I’ll therefore be taking a more in-depth look at groundwater resources within Ethiopia.   When I started looking at groundwater in Africa, I realised more than ever that most of Africa is definitely not just a ‘dry’ continent. Indeed, Africa’s groundwater reservoirs could hold up to 100 times more water than is available at the surface. In Asia, especially post-Green Revolution, groundwater has been instrumental in supporting increased agricultural production. Yet, although some regions in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Are The Tables Turning?

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Last week I discussed irrigation as the primary way in which Egypt employs its available water resources (The River Nile) for food production. The Nile is evidently an instrumental part of Egypt’s food security. Interestingly, 86% of the water being used for irrigation in Egypt actually originates in Ethiopia , a perverse irony that, as I’ve previously highlighted , leaves Ethiopia with chronic food insecurity. The majority of this water comes from the Blue Nile, a river which travels 1000 kilometres through Ethiopia , largely untouched and certainly under-utilised, before eventually reaching Egypt. Figure 1 broadly illustrates this progression of water from Ethiopia to Egypt, diminishing significantly once it flows outside of Ethiopia’s borders (it is important to recognise that although agriculutral extraction is important, it is not the sole cause of this, there is a host of contributing factors such as groundwater recharge, evaporation and industrial use). Ultimately a lthough E
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Can Egypt Show The Way?

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Last week I hope I illustrated how Ethiopia does have plentiful surface water resources, at least for part of the year, despite what I may have been pointing to in previous posts. However, this raises the question as to why, with plentiful fertile soils and bountiful rainfall, Ethiopia so often treads the line between food insecurity and famine. There are of course complications that prevent agricultural production, such as extreme topography. Yet with over 124 billion cubic metres (BCM) of river water and around  4 million hectares of potentially irrigable land (depending on the information source), it is perhaps surprising that even during years with good rains Ethiopia cannot produce enough food for its growing population. Through a comparison with Egypt, a nation which, despite having three times less arable land than Ethiopia , achieves near-continuos food security , some of the possible solutions to Ethiopia’s water and food problems become apparent.   Egypt rec
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Is Ethiopia Actually Water Scarce?

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I was having a read through my blog this morning and I realised that over the past few weeks I might have been giving off the notion that Ethiopia is a country is facing dire physical water scarcity. However, this was the idea I was attempting to move away from at the start of my blog, that Africa isn’t the parched continent it is often believed to be. Indeed, water scarcity is generally portrayed as an issue of thirst , yet it is more often the case that financial restrictions or poor water management are ultimately responsible for a lack of water. Ethiopia is no exception and, as I’ll illustrate in this post, the necessary water needed for food production is most definitely available.  Although it is, of course, true that parts of Ethiopia receive very low levels of precipitation (see Figure 2 ), the nation as a whole is home to some of the most substantial water reserves in Africa, earning it the title of the “ water tower of Eastern Africa ”. The majority of these wa
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Ethiopia's Dangerous Relationship With Food

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In previous posts I have explored the climatic and demographic changes that Ethiopia is experiencing, such as declining precipitation. However, I haven’t really discussed the very real effects of Ethiopia’s fluctuating climate on the general population. In this post I’ll therefore draw attention to these often tragic impacts.   Agriculture is generally regarded as the most weather-reliant of all human activities , accordingly the effects of Ethiopia’s fluctuating climate on agricultural production is substantial. Most recently, the El Nino and Indian Ocean Dipole induced droughts (if you missed it, find my earlier post on these two natural phenomena here ) highlights this dependency, with staggering consequences for food security, despite the economic advances discussed in my last post. At the height of the El Nino-induced 2015/16 drought, in April 2016, more than 10.2 million Ethiopians became dependent on food aid . The situation has not improved into this year, with 228 d
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