By this study, we reviewed the issues and problems of groundwater resource development, utilization, protection and control practices in Dire Dawa Administration. In doing so, data were collected using intensive review of previous studies, reports, policy documents and field visits to sample Industrial and commercial users of grounwater in the Administartaion. In general, results of the current study indicate that the present and future problems of the groundwater system are depletion, contamination and poor institutional capacity of responsible Government bodies to effectively undertake resource protection and control practices. After identifying the major issues worth due consideration by all concerned, the study further assessed possible alternatives for improvement and provided important recommendations and policy information to be used by all concerned, so as to ensure long-term sustainability of the resource.

1. GROUND WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
WORKING PAPER SERIES NO. 1
Issues and Problems of
Groundwater Resources in
Dire Dawa Administration
By : Yohannes Mengesha Wolde-Michael
The Dire Dawa Administration, Environmental
Protection Authority
1

2. GROUNDWATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES NO. 1 DDEPA May, 2014
1 | Page
Forward
The Groundwater Resource Management Working
Paper Series presents current research, policies and
tools under development by the DDEPA on ground
water resource management issues and practices.
These papers reflect work in progress and some may
appear in their final form at a later date as final
publications.This series is released to share ideas
about the work in progress by the Authority and to
elicit feedback and expert opinion from all concerned.
Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..........................................................1
CONTEXT.................................................................................1
PURPOSE & OBJECTIVE........................................................1
APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY .......................................2
Issue 1: Intense Growth and Development Consequences .....2
Issue 2: Issue: Intensive Water Use .........................................3
Issue 3: Unknown and Unregulated Groundwater Use ............3
Issue 4: Institutional capacity for protection and control...........4
Issue 5: Poor handling of boreholes .........................................4
Issue 6: Loss of recharge areas. ..............................................4
Issue 7: Contamination of the groundwater..............................5
CONCLUDING REMARKS.......................................................6
REFERENCES .........................................................................6
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
By this study, we reviewed the issues and problems
of groundwater resource development, utilization,
protection and control practices in Dire Dawa
Administration. In doing so, data were collected using
intensive review of previous studies, reports, policy
documents and field visits to sample Industrial and
commercial users of grounwater in the
Administartaion.
In general, results of the current study indicate that
the present and future problems of the groundwater
system are depletion, contamination and poor
institutional capacity of responsible Government
bodies to effectively undertake resource protection
and control practices.
After identifying the major issues worth due
consideration by all concerned, the study further
assessed possible alternatives for improvement and
provided important recommendations and policy
information to be used by all concerned, so as to
ensure long-term sustainability of the resource.
CONTEXT
The Dire Dawa Administration, Environmental
Protection Authority was established by the
proclamation No 2/2004 with the objective of
ensuring all matters, pertaining to the region’s social
and economic development activities, are carried out
in a manner that will protect the welfare of human
beings as well as sustainably protect, develop and
utilize the resource bases on which they depend for
survival.
Under this framework, supporting the protection of
soil, water and air resources and the follow up of
their implementation is one of the major duties and
responsibilities of the Authority.
On the other hand, recent studies in Dire Dawa
Administration confirm that the groundwater systems
have problems of over exploitation and pollution
showing an increasing trend from time to time.
Despite, the prevailing problems, it seems that the
issue has never been well-thought-out by all
responsible government bodies of the Administration.
With a primary intent of creating a sustainable
supportive environment for local-level integrated
management of groundwater resources, the DDEPA
has, therefore, taken the initiative to formulate and
present, to all concerned, a series of technical
papers/reports on various aspects of groundwater
management issues in the Administration.
Accordingly, this study presents the first release of
the Groundwater Resource Management Working
Paper series set out by the Authority.
PURPOSE & OBJECTIVE
The study involves an integrated assessment of the
issues and problems of groundwater resource
development, protection, utilization and control in
Dire Dawa Administration. Specifically, it provides a
snapshot of the conditions of groundwater and
recommends on additional steps to be taken to
formulate an effective solution and mitigate potential
adverse or cumulatively adverse, impacts, as
needed.
More importantly, the primary focus is to publicize
findings and develop a consensus of expert opinion
on the opportunities, challenges and priorities for

3. GROUNDWATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES NO. 1 DDEPA May, 2014
2 | Page
investment in groundwater management
interventions. In this context, outputs from this study
are expected to deliver horizontal and vertical local
concerns into decision making by policy makers,
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and heads
of government departments, who are directly or
indirectly involved in the management of ground
water resources in the administration.
APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY
The Assessment study was undertaken through a
combination of processes including interviews, desk
research, field visits to 21 industrial and commercial
use boreholes and intensive review of previous
studies, reports and policy documents.
The DDEPA staffs and invited research consultants
from the HATC Group Plc., have collaborated in
producing this draft report for further review by senior
researchers from Haramaya University. Outputs of
the review process (comments and suggestions) will
be presented on the regional consultative workshop
to be carried out as part of the study. Thus this draft
report is prepared for their high-standard expert
opinions, review and content development.
Issue 1: Intense Growth and Development
Consequences
Users draw water from groundwater storage to meet
their needs. Surrounding the town of Dire Dawa has
substantial, well-established commercial and
industrial water users, along with public water supply
wells. This growth has resulted in a greater demand
for groundwater resources and, at the same time,
has impacted the quantity and quality of those
resources and their availability to serve as reliable
water supplies. Consequently, diminishing
groundwater yields and declining groundwater
levels are the major problems encountered as a
consequence of growth and development activities in
the Town.
For instance, the Water Works Design Report of the
Dire Dawa Water Supply Project (2011) stated that
the Sabian well field, which was ones free from
settlement, is currently encroached by housing
developments. According to this report, all wells have
lower discharges as compared to their respective
design capacities; and five are already abandoned
due to diminished discharges in the Sabian well field.
The same situation is also evident in case of the
commercial and industrial boreholes visited in our
study, in that, the discharge from each borehole are
reported by their respective users as declining from
time to time. As can be seen from the figure below,
out of the sampled boreholes, which were dug in the
last five years period, only 52 percent are currently
functional, while 39 percent of them were dried and 9
percent were abandoned due to declining
productivity attributable to over-pumping of
groundwater beyond the natural recharging rates.
Our findings also indicate that a significant portion of
the sampled borehole owners (75 percent)
additionally use the public supply pipe line to fulfill
their daily water requirements. Only 25 percent of the
sampled users are satisfied by the supply they get
from boreholes.
This result clearly shows that water demands of the
users are higher than the groundwater potential.
Hence, the responsible government bodies should
oblige those Industry owners, whose consumption is
significantly high, to consider recycling their used
water.
The other problem related to the intensive growth
and development issue is well interference. When
wells are located too close together, drawdown areas
for the wells may overlap and result in decreased
yields. The clustering of water supply wells around
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Functional Dried Abandoned
52%
39%
9%
Status of Industrial & Commercial use Boreholes
25%
75%
Industrial water demand satisfaction from
use of groundwater
satisfied not satisfied

4. GROUNDWATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES NO. 1 DDEPA May, 2014
3 | Page
growth centers has locally resulted in loss of base
flow.
The main reason for the recorded failure of public
supply boreholes, especially in the Sabian well field,
is also related to excessive draw down due to
interference caused by the short distance of well
spacing in the well field resulting in water shortage in
the city. It is especially common for households in
peripheral areas, to stay for weeks without water
being supplied.
There is also a shortage of adequate pressure to
supply water to households at higher altitude and
condominium residential buildings. These
households get their supply only at night.
Issue 2: Issue: Intensive Water Use
The amount of groundwater available at a given
location is proportional to the catchment or recharge
area for the aquifer. However, this simple fact is not
even known to the groundwater users interviewed by
the study team. Although, water intensive uses such
as textile factories, cement factories, bottling
operations, and concentrated animal feedlot
operations are rapidly growing in the Administration,
nothing has been done by the respective users to
compensate for their uses.
This result indicates the presence of high ignorance
and lack of belongingness among Industrial and
commercial users of groundwater. Hence, awareness
raising activities should be undertaken by the
responsible body to disseminate information on
safe/sustainable use of the resource through
organizing workshops and trainings so that a sense
of ownership would be developed among users.
Further, the responsible bodies should create a
system by which withdrawals could be monitored and
should only allow development of groundwater up to
the sustainable yield to maintain a long-term balance
between the amount of water received and the
amount of water withdrawn.
As stated in the water development proclamation of
Ethiopia, the supervising bodies should encourage
the establishment of water users' associations that
monitor and mainitatin the safe yeild of the resource.
Issue 3: Unknown and Unregulated Groundwater
Use
Results from the review of Government’s policies on
water resources indicate that there is a big gap
between, what the policies imply about how the
resource should be regulated and how the situation
actually is in the regulatory bodies of the
government.
Information on the magnitude, location, and
seasonality of groundwater withdrawals and uses is
vital in order to evaluate sustainability and assure
that adequate water is available for existing and new
projects.
While it is known that different industrial and
commercial facilities use groundwater, the quantity
and location of many of the withdrawals are unknown
and unregulated as no government body requires
metering them. Although attempts were made by the
Energy and Mines Office to document an inventory
of groundwater resource in the adinistration, the data
is currently outdated as it has already been 10 years
since then. Apparently, nothing is currently known
about the actual amounts and locations of industrial
and commercial withdrawals.
On the other hand, the Ethiopia water resource
development proclamation states that requests for
groundwater withdrawals may be denied approved at
a lesser quantity than requested or approved with
conditions such as water level monitoring, stream
flow monitoring, water table mapping, preparation of
a water resource management plan, and/or a
mitigation strategy such as relocating a discharge
location.
This Proclamation also stipulated that the
responsible government body should issue permits
and certificates for developmnent of boreholes and
that service fees should be paid for permits
pertaining to waterworks constructions, water use;
discharge waste and etc....

5. GROUNDWATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES NO. 1 DDEPA May, 2014
4 | Page
However, as can be seen from the figure below only
40 percent of the sample users have a permit from
the Energy and Mines Office for developing
groundwater in their respective facilities.
The rest 60 percent do not even have knowladge
about the involvement of permit/certificate for the use
of groundwater.
Although it is to be appreciated that the Energy and
Mines Office has isssued certificate for at least some
of the users, further investigation by the study team
revealed that none of the issued permits had been
subjected to any kind of renewal over the years of
services. Therefore, it can be concluded that the
resource has never been given adequate attention by
the responsible bodies of the government.
Regarding service fees, we’ve learned that none of
the sampled groundwater users had paid any kind of
fee to the government in relation to their use of the
resource.
The fact that the government bodies are not being
effective in undertaking their duties, in relation to the
control and protection of groundwater resource,
implies the urgent need for a detailed institutional
capacity/gap assessment study to be carried out at
each of the responsible institutions.
Issue 4: Institutional capacity for ground water
protection and control
The demand for adequate water supply for industrial,
commercial and domestic units continues to rise
while the financial and technical capacities of the
responsible government bodies are limited, resulting
in increased competition for this limited resources.
The Regional Water Sector Development Program,
which was conducted in 2001, has addressed the
problem of capacity building in the water sector. The
shortages that the Office is facing to effectively carry
out its tasks have been identified in detail in the
Program and requirements have been quantified.
Investment schedules have also been prepared for
alleviating the shortages that the Office is facing.
However, the question of water resources monitoring
still needs to be addressed in a manner that
participates all concerned. This will be the main item
to be dealt with in the next series of this working
paper.
Issue 5: Poor handling of boreholes
Unregulated and poor handling of boreholes is the
source of accurate data gaps in both public and
privately owned boreholes. For instance the previous
reports and consultants detail evaluation of public
boreholes indicated that the water meter in most of
the boreholes was either damaged or nonexistent;
making it impossible to gage yields. The sources also
asserted that the boreholes were not properly
constructed and rehabilitated periodically.
The same problem is also evident in the industrial
and commercial boreholes visited as part of this
study. Out of the sample 21 boreholes, accurate data
on discharge rates was found only from the 7 of
them, from which an average rate of 13.5 liters per
second was recorded.
Depth of boreholes was found to be in the range of
22 up to 190 meters with average depth of 105
meter.
Depth Discharge rate
Range
(m)
Average
(m)
Range
(l/s)
Average
(l/s)
22-190 105 7-22 13.5
Hence, the responsible bodies should establish and
maintain at all levels: registers of all parameters and
actions taken with respect to applications which
pertain to water use and construction of waterworks.
Although the preparation of an inventory database,
that holds information on the currently operating
Industrial/commercial boreholes, is currently being
under formulation by the DDEPA, a detailed
inventory of borehole charcteristics should be
commenced to make a concrete base on which
effective protection and control practices could be
implemented.
Issue 6: Loss of recharge areas.
Have
licence
40%
Do not
have
licence
60%
Proportion of GW users having
license

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As metropolitan areas grow, recharge areas that
were once rural are gradually developed, typically
resulting in the creation of impervious surfaces, in the
form of buildings, walkways, roads, and parking lots.
Water from these areas is collected and managed
through engineered stormwater drainage systems,
designed to efficiently collect, detain, and dispose of
the rejected recharge and surface runoff.
The situation in Dire Dawa Administration is also not
different from this. A portion of the flow is ciurrently
being redistributed. A large portion of what would
normally have infiltrated and become base flow is
conveyed to storm-water storage basins where it is
retained and released as surface water, the outcome
of which is a decrease in the amount of groundwater
available to water supply wells, a loss of habitat-
sustaining base flow, and loss of recharge to the
aquifer.
Current best management practices, however, are
encouraging storm water infiltration or artificial
recharge over detention and release as surface
water. Thus, the Administration should encourage
the use of “best management practices” (BMPs) that
minimize the loss of recharge. Detailed analysis of
BMPs will be expected to be covered in the next
series of the working paper. Moreover, Water
Challenged Areas (WCAs) should be identified and
mapped in the Administration, especially in the
basins where existing or projected withdrawals are
anticipated to exceed long-term sustainability.
Issue 7: Contamination of the groundwater
The current trend of settlements over the potential
areas & unmanageable liquid wastes from different
sources are causing contamination of the
groundwater in Dire Dawa Administration.
The unlimited human activity’s danger is more
apparent as most residential areas are not provided
with proper waste disposal systems. Regarding the
public supply boreholes, most of the previous studies
pointed out that Nitrate concentration in some of the
currently operating groundwater sources is very high
(reaching up to 155 mg/l NO3).
However, naturally occurring nitrate seldom exceeds
0.1 mg/l NO3-N and it is only trace of it that is
expected in unpolluted water sources.
Further supporting the issue, the Water Abstraction
Report, reported based on the study by MoWR, AEC,
and WWDSE also stated that the nitrate
concentration increased by 70% from 1994 to 1999.
Various other studies have also unanimously
concluded that the nitrate concentration, especially in
the Sabian well field, has substantially increased
over the past decade.
The situation is also true for other areas in the
Administration. For instance, the Raw-Water Quality
Test, conducted as part of the Environmental Impact
Assessment Study for the Expansion Project of Coca
Cola Factory in 2012 suggested that the
groundwater, in the middle of the city, is high in its
nitrate concentration and is anticipated to occur due
to anthropogenic factors like waste disposals from
domestic and industrial sources.
Although, no water quality tests had been
undertaken by this study, almost one third of the
sampled industrial/commercial users stated that
there is a potential for contamination problem in their
boreholes due to uncontrolled waste disposal
practices of households in their neighborhoods.
Informal reports also connect the high prevalence of
diarrhea diseases (such as cholera, typhoid, and
dysentery) in the Administration, with the
groundwater contamination problem.
However, to protect the ground water resource from
possible contamination, it is only enough to recall the
conclusion and recommendations of the Water
Abstraction Report that concluded “unless immediate
measures are taken to protect the hydrogeological
environment in Dire Dawa town, the ground water will
be highly endangered since plumes of contamination
will flow along the groundwater flow direction
increasing from time to time the extent of the
contaminated aquifer in the area.”
Proposed mitigation measures, as recommendations
by the previous studies include:
 Improvement of the waste management practices
within the city. Both liquid waste and solid waste
collection and disposal systems have to be
managed properly.

7. GROUNDWATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES NO. 1 DDEPA May, 2014
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 Provision of protection (buffer) zone around the
well fields, with activities controlled within the
protection zones,
 Industries generating harmful products/by-
products) should not be located within the well
field protection zones
 No population settlement, no. animal husbandry
 No use of chemical fertilizers is allowed within
the protection zone.
 Proper watershed management should be
implemented
 When there are activities which may
contaminate the well field within the protection
zone, special measures must be undertaken to
prevent contamination.
 Well field protection zones are proposed to
curtail the pollution effects.
Other alternatives include:
 Locating a new well and discontinue use of the
contaminated one.
 Blend the water from the two wells to reduce the
nitrates down to an acceptable level.
 Obtain all drinking and cooking water elsewhere
and use the high nitrate water for other
household purposes.
However, since the financial base needed for water
development projects is very high, cost recovery
mechanism, as proposed by the water and sanitation
policy of Ethiopia, can also be a good option to tackle
the contamination problem, as it will provide a
chance for the larger community to share the costs
involved.
Hence, assessing the communities’ willingness to
pay for quality water services in Dire Dawa City
should be investigated and appropriate measures
should be taken before the problem reaches its
unpreventable stage. This issue is also expected to
be dealt with in the upcoming series of this working
paper.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
It is to be acknowladged that the responsible bodies
of the government, especially the Water Supply and
Sewrage Authority as well as Energy and Mines
Office have managed their responsibilities in
ensuring that quality studies relating to water
resources have been carried out.
However, it is also to be clearly seen that the
recommendations from all those studies have not yet
been considered for implementation by the
respective bodies.
Although not to suppress the significance of
undertaking further researches on the groundwater
issues of Dire Dawa Administration, our review of
previous studies suggest that there has never been a
research problem on the area. However,
desiminating the findings and responding to the
recommendations put forward by the studies has
been the major cause for the currently prevailing
critical condition of the resource.
Furthermore, most of the studies are currently
outdated and some also have failed to consider
major issues while dealing with the problem. For
instance, Industrial and Commercial uses of
groundwater has been given very less emphasis in
the previous researches.
While most of them were undertaken long before the
Administartion was looked upon as an industrial city,
we’ve also witnessed that the recent studies,
conducted in 2011, did not account for the present
and future industrial development related water
consumptions, while estimating the overall regional
water demand.
Hence, immediate attention should be given to
assessing the capacity gaps of the reposible
governmnet offices and taking proper measures that
would help implement the activities recommended by
this and the former studies as appropriate.
Opportunities should alos be explored for developing
partnership and coordination among other actors
working on water resource development to bring
sustainable solution.
However, the historical question that remains would
be:”Would the current hydrological, socio-economic
& community health issues of Dire Dawa have turned
out differently, had the responsible bodies responded
to the recommendations set out in the previous
studies, a decade ago?”
REFERENCES
 Design Review and Detail Design
Preparation of Dire Dawa Water Supply

8. GROUNDWATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES NO. 1 DDEPA May, 2014
7 | Page
Project, 2011: Dire Dawa Administrative
Council Water Supply & Sewerage Authority
 Guidelines For Local-Level Integrated Water
Resource Management
 Proclama Tion No. 268/2002 A Proclamation
Toprovide For Me
Establishmentofthewaterresources
Development Fund And Its Administra Tion
 Proclamation No. 295/2002 A Proclamation
Provided For The Est Abushment
Ofenvironmental Protection Organs
 Water Supply and Sanitation Master Plan,
2004: Dire Dawa Administrative Council
Water, Mines & Energy Resources
Development Office
 Global Water Partnership Technical
Advisory Committee. 2000. Integrated water
resources management. TEC Background
Paper No. 4. Stockholm: Global Water
Partnership (GWP).
 United Nations Millennium Project Task
Force on Water and Sanitation. 2005.
Health, dignity and development: What will it
take? Achieving the Millennium
Development Goals. Stockholm: Stockholm
International Water Institute and United
Nations Millennium Project.
www.unmillenniumproject.org
 Environmental Impact Assessment Report for
Coca Cola Expansion Project, Dire Dawa,
2011: Z-Ashebir Training and Consultancy
Services
The Ground Water Management Working Paper series publishes work in progress by DDEPA and its
partners. All papers are technical research papers which have been peer reviewed.
The DDEPA aims to encourage critical debate and policy dialogue on the future of groundwater
resources of Dire Dawa Administaration.