RESURRECTION OF LAKE HARAMAYA AND THE WATERSHED MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE CHANGES, IN EASTERN HARARGHE HIGHLANDS, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Globally, the lake and wetland areas are one of the most sensitive and fragile ecosystem due to the ongoing climate change and human activities. As a result, it needs special attention and managed in sustainable manner. The objective of this study aimed to investigate trajectory, change of Lake Haramaya water, and Challenges of Watershed Management; under the Faces of Climate Change in East Hararghe Highlands, Ethiopia. The study used different datasets including Satellite data of Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS with 30m resolution; Temperature and Rainfall from different sources. The remote sensing data were preprocessed, and classified using the supervised classification approach which based on Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC) algorithm. Accordingly, the results of the spatial and temporal trajectory and change of lake Haramaya over the last 20 years indicated that the lake surface area was 549 ha, 30ha, 101ha, 3ha and 545ha in the years 2001, 2006, 2012, 2018 and 2020 respectively. The study result found that the lake water that only 3ha in 2018 was rebirth to 542ha land coverage. Moreover, trend analysis of temperature and rainfall of Haramaya catchment showed that both in their trend line slope is positive that there is increasing trend in variability and change of climate and the changing climate in the increasing trends triggered increased water yield from high amount of rainfall augmented with soil and water conservation measures recently adopted in the catchment. The land use land cover change analysis in the Lake Haramaya watershed showed that built-up area, water body, grazing land, cropland and scattered trees and shrubs are changing through years. The challenges of Haramaya Lake restoration in the study catchment are identified as mainly anthropogenic effect of overpopulation and over exploitation of lake water while dumping their HHs wastes in to the lake; constant land use land cover fluctuation and change, climate variability and change, absence of natural resources, watershed and water use policy implementation, inadequate management of natural resources, shortage of capacity building and awareness creation, lack of jobs and inputs alternatives on saving and efficient technology, ignorance of water harvesting initiatives at small and large scale and inadequate incentive soil and water conservation and forestry expansion that need to be addressed for ensuring the restored lake sustainability. Besides the challenges, Haramaya Lake restoration come with opportunities such as reduced conflicts among farmers, decreased frost impact on living things, created job opportunity, recreational and amenity service from the lake, increased production and productivity of the catchment, and a great lesson learned from Haramaya Lake restoration were identified in the study catchment. The study suggested the implementations of integrated watershed management of Lake Haramaya catchment to sustainably ensure the long-term restoration and more development of the restored lake Haramaya to ensure ecologic, economic and social wellbeing’s of the catchments and the surrounding populations