104
Abdulaziz Dino Gidreta
The cattle are also common victims of water shortage. The absence of nearby rivers
forced the people to drive their cattle for about two and three hours in search of water.
In this regard, the people of Shumoro ride one hour toward Derke river (HOARCM16,
23/04/11), the people of Dobba and Wodesha travel three hours to the bottom Derke river,
and the people of Wodesha rides their cattle for two hours in to another river in another
neighborhood, Zikir river (HOARCM13, 26/04/11). The times mentioned here are one-way
travel. This mean, the people and the cattle must make these compulsory trips twice
daily. This affects both the people and the cattle in different ways; one by exploiting their
energy so that they fail to resist any diseases. The productivity of the cattle, therefore,
gets lower and lower. Surely, the waste of time is another disadvantage to the farmers.
Despite all these human and animal thirst, the attempts to provide water reservoirs has
been sluggish. There are potential options that the water can be accelerated. One way
is by pulling clean water from the nearby water rich grounds. The other is by digging
out water from deep grounds. Either of these options cannot be affordable by the finan-
cial potentials of the people, however. So, the people have been looking for assistance
from any governmental and non- governmental sectors. The following reflections reveal
threats by water scarcity in the neighborhoods.
There is a critical water problem. Dobba is the most water affected neighborhood
among the 66 kebeles. Residents had to wait 24 hours to collect five or ten liters of
water at a stream. Sometimes men accompany the women. Even the wheel-water,
that the most widely drunk, is not clean one at all. Fortunately, the people are not
getting infected as feared. Due to water shortage, sometimes we do not drink.
Particularly, Sayba Dobba is the most affected by the water. They bring water from
Woyra on their way to the marketplace on Fridays and Tuesdays (HOARCM31,
23/04/11).
There was a water-well built over there; however, it is not operative now. So, there
is only one water stream for the entire kebele and the people have to wait for sev-
eral hours to take a turn to collect. They do not even satisfy half of their water need
(HOARCM16, 23/04/11)
Water crisis is at its pick now; mothers go to fetch water at seven pm and stay until
two am. That even affects their time and health. They get sick after extended stays,
especially during a cold weather. That blocks their active participation in develop-
ment activities (HOARCM17, 23/04/11).
In our village we do not find water at a near distance if we tend to dig. The single
river has dried out, not serving even the cattle (HOARCM18, 23/04/11).
There is a stream over there. Every household tend to collect from that. It takes long
time to wait to fetch, and long way to carry to home. There is no any moving water
or river here around (HOARCM33, 24/04/11).
