RECOMMENDED CONTENTS FOR 2002

NATIONAL ATLAS OF ETHIOPIA.

Water resource
Surface hydrology
Lakes in Ethiopia

Proposed by Tagesse Eromo

Ethiopian mapping Agency Addis Ababa
2002/2009 .
● Water is the most important and abundant oxide of hydrogen .it iscovers3/4 of
the earth’s surface and it is ubiquitous in its distribution . it IS found in
atmosphere ,lithosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere.
● Ethiopia is a country naturally endowed with rich water resource. Recent water
resource studies have estimated the country's’ water resource, irrigation ,
hydropower potentials at about 100bm3 surfacewater97.2m3 and ground water-
2.60bm3 three and half million hectares and 161,000gwh per year respectively.
However ,so far about 4.6% of the irrigation potential and 1.1% of the
hydropower potential have been tapped and only 550mm2 per year have been
utilized for domestic water supply (ECS V3 19

● Groundwater is of major importance to civilization, because it is the largest

reserve of drinkable water in regions where humans can live. Groundwater may
appear at the surface in the form of springs, or it may be tapped by wells. During
dry periods it can also sustain the flow of surface water, and even where the
latter is readily available, groundwater is often preferable because it tends to be
less contaminated by wastes and organisms.(ENCARTA 2009).
● HYDROLOGY is the science that deals with the occurrence,
circulation and quality of the water in the earth including their
relation to living things. It is concerned with the occurrence of
precipitation in its various forms the movement of water over
earth’s surface and through the earth strata.
● Hydrography deals with regular observation and
description of hydrological network [rivers, lakes and
ponds, etc].It treats specifically surface water bodies ,
Webster defines hydrographY as description ,study and
charting of water bodies such as lakes ,rivers and seas .
● Drainage system refers to branched network of stream
channel together with adjacent land slopes they drain . the
flow direction ,the basin of the streams and resulting
arrangement or pattern of the network is included in system.
● A DRAINAGE BASIN /catchment area is the total area from
which a river and its tributaries collect both surface runoff and
sub surface flow . A river basin is bounded by and separated
● ETHIOPIA is a country of geographical
diversity with high rugged mountains, flat –
topped plateaus and deep gorges . One of
the striking physical features of the
country is great rift valley system which
extend from northeast to southwest .
forming the eastern and western high
lands . Because of this the drainage
system of the country classified as follows(
EDVAS 1989)
● DRAINAGE AREA NO 1
● drain to the Nile and thus to
mediterranean. The abay has the largest
catchment area, discharge and irrigable
area(see ,table1 ,below). The largest
inland lakes, Lake Tana is found in this
area . Tisissat falls are estimated to be
37m to45m high .it is considered one of
the Ethiopian best tourist attractions.

●,
fig- 1 Tisissat falls
● DRAINAGE AREA NO 2
● This area comprises the eastern and south eastern part of
the country, lying east of the rift valley. The two major river
basins in these area are Ghenale and wabishebele .The
Ghenale receives a considerable amount of water from its
teributers Dawa and weyb ,and flow through the arid and
sem-arid areas of Ethiopia and Somalia to Indian Ocean
the Wabishebele flows through Ethiopia and Somalia for
about 2000km but failed to reach the Indian ocean.
● DRAINAGE AREA NO 3
● This is an area of inland drainage except gibe river. Gibe
(omo) rises in central south –western plateaus and flows
south ward in to Turkana.
● T he Awash river flows north east through Afar plains with
rift valley towards the gulf of tajura but having lost much
water through evaporation and seepage, it finishes in lake
Abe near Ethio -Djubouti border.
T able 1 major rivers data

River basins A rea km2 D ischarge bill. I rrigable area

m3 (ha)

A bay/blue Nile 201366 53 99915

T ekkezz/sobata 87773 8 312700

B aro/Atbara 76718 13 738500

G ibe/omo 77200 18 445320

Webishaebele 205407 4 20400

Ghenale 168141 6 433300

A WASH 113709 5 171400

Source 5th NILE BASIN Conference in

Addis Ababa , Ethiopia (2002 ).
● LAKES IN ETHIOPIA
● ETHIOPIA has many lakes with the exception of
lake Tana all other major lakes are located in the rift
valley.
● TANA is source of BLUE NILE and is the largest
lake in Ethiopa . l ake tana supports a notable
fishing industry ,according to Ethiopian department
of fishers and aquaculture ,1454tonnes of fish are
landed each year at Bahirdar (the regional capital of
Amhara).
● Abaya is located in Great rift valley east of the Guge
mountain . it is feds on its northern shore by bilate
river and the largest rift valley lake in Ethiopia .
● Abe is a salt lake laying on Ethio-Djubouti border. It
is the ultimate destination of Awash river and its
average depth and surface area ,13meters
● Langano is a popular lake with tourist and city
dwellers. There are number of resorts around
the lake and water sport are popular. There is
variety of wild life around the lake ,which
includes hippos ,baboons and huge variety of
birds .TWO earth quakes had occurred in this
area around 1966and 1985.
● Awassa is an endoric basin in Ethiopia located
in the rift valley .It has maximum depth of
10meters and is at elevation of 1708m.it is the
most studied lakes of rift valley in Ethiopia,
according to William Tyler , a member of the
Africa lakes and rivers research Group at
university of waterloo
● Abijata has a maximum depth of 14m and is at
fig -2 Flamingos around lake Abijata
table - 2 some features of the lakes are enumerate
Name Length width Area Depth Altitude
T ana 70 60 3600 9 178
Rift valley 60 20 1160 13 1580
Abaya 18 15 230 46 1580
L angano 16 9 129 10 1675
Awassa 17 15 205 14 2443
A bijata 26 2 551 10 1108
C hamo 28 12 409 230 1540
Shalla 25 20 434 4 1637
Z iway 20 15 250 9 1890
K oka - - - - -
A be
●Thank you
●attention