Status and Functions of Rainwater Harvesting Ponds and Constraints to their Sustainability in Meyu Muluke Woreda, Eastern Hararghe Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

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).