Farmers on the frontline: Change and transformation in Ethiopia’s (Sidama) watersheds
Two women in Sidama Zone, Ethiopia. Alan Nicol By Alan Nicol and Likimyelesh Nigussie ( IWMI ). This post first appeared on on The World Bank’s Governance for Development Blog . Selilah stares out over a landscape she has inhabited for 70 years. In the valley below, deep gullies scar the slopes where rains have carried away the soil. Living with three of her four sons, she is struggling to make ends meet in this part of Sidama Zone, Ethiopia, where, she says, there used to be a forest more than 40 years ago. Now most trees have been felled and water is scarce. Selilah spends two hours a day collecting her two jerrycans (50 liters) from a neighboring kebele (neighborhood), but when that source fails she has to buy water from a vendor at ETB 6 (30 US Cents) per a jerrycan, a huge cut into her income. In the last 10 years, she says, the rains have changed – they are lighter than before and more infrequent. As a result, production from her meager plot – just 0.25 ha – is dec