1.

Water shade Report

1.1. Introduction
The history of the watershed area in terms of land use is complicated and has long decades back
to the past. Before 6 to10 decades ago large area of this watershed was forest land and animal
breading was the main economic activity for those society. Surrounding Peoples were practicing
different agricultural activities such as animal breading, crop cultivation with rain fed in this area
to alleviate poverty. Irrigation was also tried even though it was not dominant in its acceptability.
Still now Irrigation is a supplementary activity for this study area community income in addition
to other agricultural activities such as rain fed agriculture and animal husbandry for their income.
As a chance the project area is enriched by natural resources such as soil water and subtrobic
climatic condition that is comfortable for crop production. The ground water resource is also can
irrigate large area of agriculture land if proper irrigation structure is implemented.
The demand for food, energy and other human requirements depends upon the conservation and
improvement of the productivity of land. Land resources are finite. In the last few decades, there
has been constant pressure on this resource. Increasing human and animal population, diversion
of land for agriculture, unselective chopping of trees, expansion of agricultural land without
adequate concern for the treatment of catchment and improper agricultural practices on sloppy
and marginal lands have caused a serious level of degradation. In this area Land-cover/land-use
changes occur both as a result of natural forces such as wind and water erosion and changes for
different irrigation land, floods and droughts as well as due to human induced changes. Large-
tracts of land have been cleared for agriculture, collection of fuel wood and rural settlement
growth. Eco-systems have been transformed both in response to land-cover changes as well as a
result of plants and animals brought from outside their native habitats.

1.2. Main Objective of the Study

The major objectives of the study is generally to use natural resources such as land, water and
forest wisely by protecting them from natural and manmade damage to give up sustainable social
and economic growth in terms of irrigation agriculture for the concerned proposed area.
Specific objective
To address past, present and anticipated future problems of land degradation in the catchment
To identify the cause and responsible agent for the environmental degradation
To protect soil erosion and sediment deposition in catchment area
To protect irrigation structures from damage.

1.3. Methodology
In this study primary data was collected by transect walk throughout the watershed area to
observe topography of the area, vegetation coverage, soil type, form of soil erosion observed in
the area and through well designed and pre-tested interview schedule for male and female
respondents of villages people. Qualitative data was collected through case studies, group
discussions and participatory rural appraisal exercises. Secondary data was also collected
through large number of literature, reports, census reports, journals, old district gazetteers etc.
Discussion

1.4. Project area description

Gora cafe ground water irrigation project is found/located in Oromia regional state south west
shoa zone dawo woreda Gora Roge kebele which is 20km from woreda town busa and 70km
from from zone waliso. the ground irrigation project and its surrounding is which has small
irrigation land by small land holders and manly practiced there agricultural activity by rain fed
during short summer season. Large area of agricultural land is not cultivated properly due to
shortage of rain fall and irrigation water. Mostly this agricultural land remains fallow as it is
prepared for rain fed agriculture. The settlement area and other land use such r and grazing lands
remains as farming. Generally the area cannot give an expected yield in terms of all agricultural
activity unless soil water conservation activities are practiced in the area.

1.4.1. Command Area

Totally the anticipated irrigation area is greater than 90 ha which is planned to produce different
crops and vegetables. This area of land is owned by small number of farmers which means it
should be re distributed for others as irrigation land tennuring principle. The command has
suitable topography and soil type for irrigation purpose.
 1.4.2. Shape and Size
Shape and size of the area are the main characters that define the watershed. The proposed
project area also has large, compacted shape and sloppy which can produce huge run off. But
water ways and gullies already have their way to convey this flood to end outlet. On the large
watershed the total flow will take more time to pass the outlet while in small watershed the flood
water collect quickly. Generally the shape of the water shed is expressed by the form factor and
compactness coefficient.

1.4.3. Land use

Of the total mini watershed geographical area of larger portion is cultivated for rain fed
agriculture and for irrigation. While mountainous part is used as settlement, farming cover and
degraded land. The other area is also used as grazing land for surrounding community. The per
capital availability of land declined from time to time and is estimated to reduced further at this
time.

1.5. Erosion and land degradation

Land degradation of this project area has deteriorated the quality of land and it is now estimated
that all upper catchment of the total area suffers from degradation in some form such as water
erosion, wind erosion and degraded land. Today, more of the area requires special treatment to
restore such lands to productive & profitable use. Top soils are lost annually along with valuable
plant nutrients such as Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium and micro nutrients. As a result of the
loss of top soil along with nutrients, there is low agricultural production. Thus, the management
of basic natural resources of soil, land and water assumes special importance and plays a vital
role, in improving the area economy and environment. The main types of land degradation in this
area are gullied and degraded grazing land. The extent of areas affected under these categories is
as follows:

1.5.1. Gullies
In the southern part of this mini watershed, gullies are formed as a result of localized surface
runoff at short summer season affecting the soil material resulting in the formation of observable
channels causing undulated terrain. Gullies are the first stage of excessive land dissection
followed by their networking which lead to the development of starved land in this area. But
these gullies are so far from this anticipated irrigation project area. In addition to this
mountainous area, gullies are observed at the boundary of command area which are short in
length.

1.5.2. Water logging

Even if the water table of the ground water is shallow to the surface the problem is not appear for
long time. Water-logged lands are those where the ground water is very shallow for the surface
and water stands for most of the time due to low infiltration capacity of the soil. Large area of
command surrounding land is subjected to water logging problem during summer season when.
But Water logging resulted in this project area is not in restriction of the normal circulation of air
inside the soil and the command is also out of this problem completely.

1.5.3. Salinity and alkalinity

As it is known Saline ground water, high water table and irrigation without the provision of
drainage result in salinity problem in arid and semiarid areas. The project area is semiarid in its
climate condition but ground water table is not the problem to create this salinity and alkalinity
due to its sallowness.

1.5.4. Soil erosion by water and wind

The causes of soil erosion are deforestation, over-grazing, increasing agricultural practices in
undulated lands, improper cropping pattern and other kinds of poor and un proper lands
management practices. As a result of soil erosion by water, recharge of ground water gets
reduced, low lands are flooded and sedimentation of water harvesting tanks is occurring. The
project area is mainly not affected both by wind and water erosion because of the aridity of the
area and insufficient soil water conservation activity. Water erosion is mainly in the form of
sheet, rill and gully erosion form at the command and in surrounding area.
Degraded Bush and grazing land
Due to large animal population, the traditional pasture and grazing land have been degraded as
they are over exploited different animal groups such as cattle, goats and camels are reared on
Bush land as grazing land during summer and on agricultural land for long winter season to use
crop residue as animal fodder. This is leading to high animal traffic an save farming in command
area which is leading to degradation of surface soil.
 1.6. Soil conservation and watershed management
A number of programmers have been launched starting from five or six years ago by aiming at
providing treatments to agricultural lands for control of erosion and conservation of moisture.
Specific measures have also been aimed to restore some of the degraded lands. Zonal agriculture
bureau with kebele peoples were tried to controlling the premature erosion of the area, enhancing
productivity of catchment through integrated planning of watersheds by appropriate measures
such as contour/ graded bund, agro-forestry, horticulture plantation, pasture development,
afforestation, drainage line treatments, water harvesting structures and percolation tanks on
agricultural land and bush lands based on scientific lines. But still these measurements are not
sufficient enough to protect flow of run off because of their quality.

1.6.1. Drainage Basins

A drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain drains downhill into a body of water,
such as a river and lake. The drainage basin includes both the streams and rivers that convey the
water as well as the land surfaces from which water drains into those channels, and is separated
from adjacent basins by a drainage divide.

1.6.2. Flood Amount and Frequency

During the summer season the upper drainage of gully collects runoff and sometimes release it at
this area as a flood. This flood may occur two to three times within 3 years.

1.7 .Ecology
Watersheds are important elements to consider when thinking about ecology. As water flows
over and under the ground and along rivers it can pick up nutrients, sediment, and pollutants.
Like the water which carries them, they get transported towards the outlet of the basin. As water
speed slows down they are deposited and affect the ecological processes along the way as well as
in the receiving water source. Modern agriculture has increased the amount of artificial fertilizers
and toxins that are pesticides and herbicides enter the water in watersheds drainage. There for
unnaturally large volumes of nitrogen, phosphorus and Potassium have affected the ecology at
the mouths of this watershed. A common consequence of such processes is affecting the upper
watershed and the increase of plant growth in areas where the deposition of nutrients has
increased. This problem is observed in this mini watershed and in its surrounding.

1.7. Vegetation
The village has no forest and has tree area relatively to total area of land pattern. The farmers of
the village are struggling for the planting trees to conserve the degraded area. The types of tree
observed in the mini watershed and its surrounding are mainly naturally grown acacia tree and
different ever green trees at the boundary of the commend area. Different newly planted trees for
soil water conservation purpose are not grown properly even cannot survive the air condition of
the area. Naturally grown acacia trees can survive the aridity of the area and still observed on
agricultural land form.

1.8. Conclusion/Recommendation
Because of strong linkage of the community livelihoods with agriculture and animal production,
over grazing and deforestation are the main problem due to population pressure and topography
of the area; resulted high amount of soil erosion and expansion of desertification. Watershed
based land use planning work is not well developed in the area. Physical and biological soil and
water conservation structures are not well constructed. Surface water harvesting structures are
almost null and most of the structures are not functional. In general it can be concluded that the
proposed area is comfortable for irrigation activity in terms of its agro ecology, soil type,
available water and area of agricultural land which means the expected main and specific
objective will be achieved if the hall physical and biological measures are considered and
implemented properly in this mini watershed. In doing this natural resources are protected from
degradation and the area can produce the sustainable and expected production which can solve
the problem of supply in food crop and vegetables demand.