Abstract:
This study was conducted to evaluate the future water requirement of Ethiopia
while developing selected irrigation projects proposed on the tributaries of
Abbay as specified on the master plan of Abbay river basin. The study has also
investigated the probable water supply and demand condition of the projects
under consideration. The reduction of flow at the border due to the
implementation of the projects as compared to the existing mean annual flow of
the river was also computed. Based on the required data availability on the master plan documents to run
Water Evaluation and planning analysis (WEAP) model, 17 irrigation projects
covering an area of 220,416 ha of land have been included in the analysis.
From the analysis the total water requirement of these irrigation projects was
estimated as 3 Billion cubic meter annually. The border flow volume reduction
as a result of the implementation of these projects is only 6% of the estimated
mean annual flow, 49.7 billion cubic meters. Among the studied projects, the unfulfilled water demand of Negesso and Rib is
significantly high that needs further investigation. Moreover the water released
for downstream users and ecological purpose needs due consideration for the
