Abstract:
Water scarcity is a critical issue for many developing countries in general and for those in the
arid to semi-arid areas of the world in particular. It is a key challenge and a major constraint to
economic and human development in the ASA areas of Ethiopia. To mitigate the threat from
water scarcity, there have been extensive efforts and attention given towards rainwaterharvesting
technologies because of its potential as a viable option to address the problem. This
study focuses on the status and functions of Rainwater Harvesting Ponds (RWHPs) and factors
responsible for deterioration of rainwater harvesting ponds, in Meyu Muluke Woreda in Eastern
Hararghe zone, Oromia region, Ethiopia. Household survey, interviews of the key informants,
focus group discussions, and field observation were a combination of different research methods
deployed to generate data to achieve the objectives of this study. Moreover, representative
RWHP having common qualities of the ponds in the woreda and suitable for the doing the
measurements was selected. Surface area and volume of representative RWHP was measured
through field chain and tape survey method. Data collected through each tools was entered and
analyzed in Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 to determine descriptive
statistics which was based on frequency and percentages to analyze findings. The results of the
study disclosed that majority of respondents have no access to pipe water. Most households in
the study area manage persistent water shortages by accessing water from RWHPs especially
during dry season. Water from RWHP was used for human consumption by 43.48% and 58.7%
of interviewed HHs in rainy season and dry season, respectively whereas 58.7% and 68.84% of
the sample population has indicated that they use water for their livestock from RWHPs in rainy
and dry season respectively. But, the sustainability of RWHPs is surrounded by various
deteriorating factors. The major factors include: technical problems, socio economic and
environmental factors. About 14.5% of the total response has disclosed that the RWHP in their
respective community used to have semi-functioning and 30.4% % of responds explained their
pond is not functional. Technical defect, drought, siltation, lack of maintenance, improper
livestock watering and water abstraction, disagreement between users, damage to side wall of
the pond, slope failure due to seepage and poor construction quality were identified as the main
reason for semi functioning and not functioning of RWHPs. Estimated water budget of
representative RWHP indicated that 11.84% of harvested water was used for human
consumption,58.91% was consumed by animals and 29.25% of harvested water was lost through
natural loss (Evaporation and seepage).
