Benefits and Challenges of Dugout Rainwater Harvesting Ponds in Tigray Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

In Tigray, over 78,000 dugout ponds have been constructed since 2000. The objective was to alleviate the problem of recurrent drought that prevails in the region every five to ten years. However, it has been reported that most of the ponds are not functional. Therefore, this paper presents an assessment of the dugout pond construction in Tigray with a particular emphasis to challenges and technical problems and pinpoints the causes that led to the poor performance of the ponds. Thus, even though rainwater harvesting ponds have the potential to ensure availability of water for various uses and generate income for smallholders, poor performance levels and insufficient impacts to local communities were widely observed in the study area due to inadequate site selection, absence of biophysical survey during design and construction, leakage and evaporation losses, and poor management of the ponds.