Processes of Soil Erosion and Aspects of Community-Based Soil Conservation in Grahutsa-Korir Watershed in Eastern Tigray
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Date
2001-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Land degradation is a serious problem in Ethiopia in general and the study
area in particular. The root causes of environmental degradations are human
and animal population pressure and urbanization in the past 40 years. And
this means high demand of wood for fuel and construction, and land for
farming and grazing. Land in general and vegetation in particular is totally
degraded natural vegetation is left towards the churchyards. In addition to
these soil types, slope and topography leads to soil erosion. As much as 53.56%
of the study area has slope 36.4% or above. There are different gullies with a
total length of above 15 kms and average depth of 2.29 m and a width of 10.67
____ -"m""; indicating these that more than 371.858 m3 of soil is lost in the past years.
These and other factors averagely are responsible for the loss of greater than
183,186 tons of soil every year in the study catchment.
Efforts, no doubt, are tried by Governmental and Non- Governmental
Organizations to check such degradations, but reports (Pender, 1999) in
general point out towards their total or partial failures. This was due to little
or no mobilization of the local community, insufficient or lack of maintenance
and the lack of appropriate environmental policies, which are still prevalent in
the area. Scenario in that formerly constructed dams are almost silted and
breached, vegetation are almost weathered, agricultural yield is diminishing,
water supply is reduced and the like. Even the conservation measures that were
introduced previously lacked follow -up. The ever-increasing demand for
vegetation products adversely affects the vegetation cover. In the recent
conservation measure the local communities are participating and the
preservation of indigenous plants are becoming very effective due to their
adaptability to the harsh environment.
Grahutsa-Korir catchment, which is part of Genfel catchment, is highly
degraded. One can observe in the catchment large stretches of bare land and
dissection with intense gully formations especially in the sandstone part of the
catchment, but it is in the limestone formations with their topsoil where the
new integrated watershed managements are being practiced mainly to reduce
siltation of the new earth dam. Community mobilization today is better, they
participate in all the steps from programming to execution, use, maintenance,
etc so they are highly concerned with the conservation reasons but for its low
financial allotment by the government. The crack of the problem is that the
budget allotted is too low to cover greater area.
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Keywords
Processes of Soil Erosion, Aspects of Community-Based Soil Conservation