Introduction:

Ethiopia is one of the few countries in the world with a uniquely diverse topography and climate. The altitudinal and topographic variations, coupled with the tropical location have made the climate exhibit extreme spatial and temporal variability. The distinctive mix of geography, geology, topography and climate has endowed the country with impressive ecological and biological diversity.

Accordingly, 12 major and 48 minor agro-ecological units are recognized. There are 12 major river basins with a combined annual flow of about 122 billion cubic meter.

Water is a key resource for Ethiopia’s development. The Ten-year Development Plan (TYDP) has targets to increase use of water for irrigated agriculture, hydropower, manufacturing, eco-tourism, and WASH services. On the other hand, growing demands for water, climate change, watershed degradation, pollution and weak institutional capacity for IWRM constitute major challenges of the sector and threaten to exacerbate water scarcity in the country.

The direct beneficiaries of the project include MoWE, BAOs, RWBs, and communities in the target basins, At the community level, the project is expected to directly benefit around 2.5 million people and indirectly more than 50 million people residing in the five basins.

Objectives:

The general objective of the BRIGHT project is to improve Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in the basins of Abbay, Awash, Rift Valley, Omo-Gibie and Tekezie.  Thus, the project-level impact of the BRIGHT project is realisation of improved knowledge-based management and functioning of IWRM for climate-resilient landscapes, inclusive livelihoods improvement and development in the selected basins.                     

More specifically, the project seeks to:

• Strengthen the technical, managerial, regulatory, infrastructural and logistical capacities of the MoWE and the selected BAOs and concerned regional bureaus in integrated water and land resources management.
• Design and have in place a well-functioning Basin Information System for IWRM and generate additional evidence to fill knowledge gaps in the selected river basins. 
• Support the revision/preparation of basin development plans and facilitate implementation by supporting priority and high impact IWRM projects in target basins.
• Establish climate-smart IWRM learning watersheds in the target basins.

Project activities:

• Enhancing IWRM capacity of the MoWE, Basin Administration Offices and Regional Bureaus.
• Supporting the   establishment of a basin information system for IWRM and generating additional evidence to fill knowledge gaps in the selected river basins .
• Supporting the preparation/revision of basin development plans and facilitating implementation by supporting priority and high impact IWRM projects in target basins.

Expected Results:

• Strengthened institutional and governance capacity of the MoWE, Basin Administration Offices and Regional Bureaus for implementation of IWRM.    
• Enhanced human capital capacity of the MoWE, Basin Administration Offices and Regional Bureaus for implementation of IWRM.     
• Enhanced infrastructural, technological and logistical capacities of the MoWE, Basin Administration Offices and Regional Bureaus. 
• Stocktaking available knowledge and generating additional empirical evidence to fill knowledge gaps.
• Development of basin information system.
• Revision/preparation of basin development plans for target basins.
• Implementation of basin development plans by supporting priority and   high-impact IWRM projects in the target basins.

RVO webpage