Flippant physicians for a serious illness of Lake Tana
A call for survival of a sacred, majestic and economic giant lake
By: Enkuye Yizengaw (enkuye2112@gmail.com)
(Grant Reporting of International Center for Journalists, ICFJ)
This story explores the mystery of the neglect of a lake by the relevant national and international institutions. It uncovers the reasons why Lake Tana, which is threatened with extinction, is apparently not given the attention it deserves, despite its economic and cultural value. It is home to around 40 island monasteries. The lake provides 60 percent of the water for the world’s longest river, the Nile, it is the center of many ancient texts and religious and cultural heritage and it is the source of millions of dollars revenue from commercial fish production. Lake Tana and the adjacent wetlands provide direct and indirect livelihoods for more than 500,000 people. Furthermore, Ethiopia is investing billions of dollars in a dam project on the Nile. The Nile without its 60% water provider lake is unthinkable. However, Ethiopia is not paying due attention to this economically, culturally and religious invaluable lake? The reason behind these questions is still not revealed, so the story revolves around this issue.
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Lake Tana is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the second largest in Africa, accounting for 50% of the country’s freshwater resources. The lake has an area of 3111 km2, a volume of 284 m3, a length of 90 km and a width of 65 km. It is located in the Amhara region and surrounds half of the regional city of Bahir Dar.
Historically, the area around Lake Tana has played a significant role in preserving religious and cultural artifacts from destruction by contemporary hostile forces and the rise of the Solomon dynasty, which encouraged the construction of churches and monasteries. In addition the lake is endowed with resources that have great importance for food and water, raw material, energy, cultivation, organic fertilizers, genetic, medicinal plants, fishery, small scale irrigation with their production of cereal crops, fruits, and vegetables.
Many of the earliest manuscripts and precious examples of ecclesiastical art, as well as royal items, are safely stored in their treasuries. At the same time, new religious arts are developed and displayed in the churches. The oldest of these forty or so churches date from the fourteenth century.
Variety Views of Lake Tana
The lake also feeds 60% of the Blue Nile, which is a source of water for over 123 million people in the Nile Basin. It is also important for water transportation and as a tourist destination. Research indicates that Lake Tana and the adjacent wetlands provide direct and indirect livelihoods for more than 500,000 people.
The lake was included in the list of 250 lake regions of global importance for biodiversity. It is home to 28 fish species, 21 of which are endemic. The annual commercial value of fish production in Lake Tana is approximately $1.1 million.
In addition, with a length of 90 km and a width of 65 km, the lake offers huge potential for lakeshore recreational areas. The capital of the Amhara region, Bahir Dar, may be mentioned in this regard. The city has a good reputation as a venue for national sporting events and international conferences. Bahir Dar can be called the gift of Lake Tana, just as Herodutus said Egypt was the gift of the Nile. According to the Ethiopian Business Review, in the 2013/14 E.C fiscal year, 269,489 tourists visited the city and the revenue increased to ETB332.8 million. During the same period, the revenue contribution of tourists who visited cultural sites reached ETB71.4 million, while ETB1.98 million, 2.2 million and ETB2.6 million were gained from conference tourists, religious tourists and sport tourists, respectively.
In addition to Bahir Dar, there is a famous lakeside called Gorgora, which was founded 700 years ago by Emperor Amde Tsion. The comprehensive Gorgora ecotourism project, for which 1 billion birr has been earmarked, is one of the projects funded by the Gebeta Lehager or Dine for Ethiopia project by the current government, which covers 884 hectares of land.
In recognition of the lake’s rich biodiversity and significant cultural heritage, UNESCO added the lake to its World Network of Biosphere Reserves in June 2015.
Images of Bahir Dar City and Gorgora (the last one) along with Lake Tana View
Although Lake Tana is central to the country’s desired socioeconomic transformation, its improper handling by the concerned bodies raises critical questions. The lake is infested with a water weed locally known as Emboch. In 2011, the Regional Environmental Protection Agency designated water hyacinth as the most dangerous weed in Lake Tana. At that time, about 20,000 acres of the lake’s northeastern shore were infested. In 2014, researchers from Ethiopia found that about one-third of the lake’s shoreline, about 190 km, was infested with water hyacinth.
Through time, because of lack of intervention to halt the spread of the water hyacinth, it covered more than 190 km of the lakeshore. This is equivalent to an area of 33 to 36 kebeles or about 8 districts, Ayalew Wonde (PhD), Director of Lake Tana and Other Water Bodies Protection and Development Agency explains.
Several reasons are attributed for the cause of the water weed. The discharge of untreated wastewater from industries around the lake also contributes to the degradation of the lake’s ecosystem. The Tana Beles Hydropower Project was completed in 2010 and relies on water diverted from the lake through underground tunnels. After 2 years from the establishment of the Tana Beles Project a water weed appeared to be seen on the lake and scholars associated the cause of the water hyacinth with the wastage of the Tana Beles Hydroelectric Power Project. The diverted water, after passing through the turbines, is discharged into the Beles River basin, which is used for irrigation of the state’s sugar plantations. In addition, the withdrawal of large amounts of water from the lake has caused water levels to fall below recommended levels, resulting in widespread environmental and economic degradation.
Ecohydologist by Profession and Head of Eco hydrology and Water Quality Desk in the Ministry of Water and Energy, Mr. Yohannes Zerihun explains invasive weeds, including water hyacinth at Lake Tana, can spread when a healthy aquatic ecosystem is disturbed by various human-caused interactions that affect the ecosystem. When a foreign object enters a water body, the water body naturally loses its identity.
Another reason is that many animals live around Lake Tana. The waste of the animals at the time of drinking water, along with other factors, has reduced the filtering ability of the water. At this time, a favorable situation has been created for an invading weed that desires this situation, Mr. Yohannes added.
Literature on the matter states that within two years the estimated spread of weed has doubled from 20,000 to 40,000 acres. It is estimated that the weed now covers 50,000 acres of the lake. To make matters worse, tributary streams carry large amounts of soil and suspended solids into the lake, which degrades water quality and creates conditions favorable for the weed to spread.
Mr. Yohannes elaborated the above mentioned idea as follows, when the coastal vegetation around Tana was cultivated for offshore farming, foreign matter entered the lake. This created a favorable environment for the weed. Furthermore, plants in the upper basin, i.e., the banks of the Gumera and Rib rivers, were converted for agriculture, and the lakeshore was plowed up to the edge, allowing fertilizers and sediments to enter the Tana via the rivers.
Recent studies show a serious decline in fish populations due to the spread of the aquatic weed water hyacinth around fish spawning grounds. According to the studies, the lake has lost 75% of its fish population in recent years. In normal times, the potential fish production of the lake is estimated at 13,000 tons annually. But the current fish production is less than 1000 tons per year.
Studies on the spread of water hyacinth show that it can multiply every two to three weeks, depending on the nutrient status of the water body. The weed can grow up to 1 meter tall. If left unchecked, water hyacinth can cover entire bodies of water by forming thick floating mats. The dangerous aquatic weed has been a growing problem since 2011 and currently covers over 197 km in seven districts of the Amhara region and continues to spread rapidly. Now, looking at the infested area, one cannot believe that it is a body of water with an average depth of 8 meters.
In addition, the water hyacinth has hindered the flow of tourists to the monasteries. Mr. Melkamu Adam, Tourism Development Director in the Amhara Region Tourism Bureau says “as a tourist destination, especially in the area of Tana Kirkos, the road is often closed, so visitors cannot easily travel.”
Partial View of the Lake Tana affected by the Water Hyacinth
The crisis, despite its disastrous consequences, has only entered the public consciousness in 2020. With growing awareness, people began to talk about water hyacinth and Lake Tana in 2020. Environmental activists, civil society groups, singers, poets, writers, and ordinary citizens have expressed concern about the precarious state of the lake. This growing activism seems to have resonated with the government, especially at the regional level, as efforts to remove the weeds have gained momentum after 8 or 9 years since the discovery of the weed.
Ayalew Wonde (PhD), explained that following a growing concern on the issue the Amhara Region Bureaus established a small independent entity named Lake Tana and Other Water Bodies Protection and Development Agency which is responsible to facilitate the fight against the water hyacinth.
Together with the Ministry of Water and Energy, the agency established a five-year strategic plan. The goal of the strategic plan was not even limited to removing the weeds. Considering removing the water hyacinth as the first task, the strategic plan aimed to replace the existing vegetation with the water friendly shoreline plants and establish a buffer zone Ayalew remarked. As part of the strategic plan awareness creation to the surrounding rural and urban community has been designed.
However, the ending of the strategic plan was not fortunate due to discretionary coordination among the stakeholders which was not principled or binding. Added to that the country has been and is in a time of war and chaos that the administrative bodies are not paying due attention for the issue in that they were busy in seasonal agendas. Lack of commitment from the administrative bodies of the regional government and inability to get attention from the federal government is also visibly noted. The other reason for the plan to be unsuccessful was that the campaigns organized by the community were not consistent; they were on and off. The weed has a multiplying speed and therefore soon after the campaign stops it floats rapidly onto the water surface two to three times.
An infestation of water hyacinths is difficult to get rid of. Manual or mechanical removal of the weed might reduce the spread and slow it down. But it’s expensive and takes time. Local authorities mobilize an estimated 162,000 people to remove weeds by hand. This only happens when the lakeshores are accessible and farmers have time.
The participation of the Tourism Bureau of Amhara Region and Ministry of Water and Energy has been limited to forming a string and technical committee. In cooperation with Lake Tana and other water bodies Protection and Development Agency, they have tried to remove the water hyacinth using people and machines. But this was not effective and not a lasting solution.
Federal government bodies that deal with water and environmental issues are noticeably absent. The lake is registered as a World Biosphere Reserve body by UNESCO and is now a world property. The registration of the lake by UNESCO is a great opportunity to ask for a fund from donors for the purpose of curbing the water weed. But the concerned bodies are not using this golden opportunity.
Even now, the intervention of UNESCO is not only very late, but is limited to the registration of the lake as a biosphere reserve. According to Mr. Samuel Party, Science Specialist at UNESCO, Addis Ababa explains at this time, when the lake is largely infested with aquatic weeds and the livelihoods of surrounding communities are at risk, UNESCO plans to conduct a rapid assessment of the Lake Tana ecosystem to understand the issues and challenges. It will seek to define the entry points for interventions against the water hyacinth and other factors that threaten the lake’s ecosystem and the provision of ecosystem services to surrounding communities. It also seeks to use sustainable tourism as a conservation measure and to build the local economy.
Ayalew also blamed Public Universities as weak in fighting the water hyacinth despite their potential to conduct studies and bring solutions. Three state universities near the lake, namely Bahir Dar University, Gondar University, Debre Tabor University have taken various initiatives to address the problem. The local universities’ initiatives included customized mechanical harvesters to eliminate the weeds, breeding flies, and applying a biological control mechanism against the weeds. As to Ayalew, the Universities are victimized to be followers of seasonal campaigns from the federal government rather than being innovative and creative in designing their own agenda and work for it. As a result, their effort did not last long.
All in all efforts to control water hyacinth have been inadequate given the scale of the problem. They have been characterized by inadequate resource mobilization and a lack of coordination and decisive leadership. The inaction of federal agencies, which are better positioned both financially and technically to deal with the problem, has exacerbated the problem. The participation was neither financed nor guided by a plan. The motivation of the society participating in the campaign was inconsistent.
Pictures showing people and machineries to remove the water weed, machineries drown into the mud
Tana means in other way the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in which the government is investing millions of dollars. Let alone the Ethiopian government, other riparian states should also be involved. To address the problem of the Tana, the federal government should make it a national agenda in its own right and allocate an annual budget for it, as it did for the Renaissance Dam, Ayalew Wonde recommends.
He summarizes the reasons for the fight against the water hyacinth “We are not getting the support we need from universities and decision-making bodies. What is required from the federal government is not available. What is needed from the region is not available, so the overall result of the work is poor.”
Despite the long time since the weed was discovered on the lake, the Ethiopian media has been silent for about ten years. The only media that has put the issue on the public agenda is the Amhara Media Corporation, though it was late.
The only issue that has been reported by the national media is the announcement of the start of a campaign against the water hyacinth at Lake Tana on October 19, 2020, as reported by the Ethiopian Monitor that the authorities have launched a month-long campaign to remove the water hyacinth from Lake Tana. A month after the campaign was launched, a national media outlet, the Ethiopian News Agency, reported that 60% of the water hyacinth had been removed. However, data on the ground shows that the campaign was conducted manually with labor and the weeds were not properly removed.
The media, which usually repeats documentary after documentary, has lost its voice when the lake is facing such a disaster today.
Of course, it would be ironic to mobilize the public for the construction and effective functioning of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam without saving Lake Tana. After all, Lake Tana provides 60% of the water for the Blue Nile.
All in all, the stakeholders who are supposed to be physicians for the illness of the lake are not responding as to the magnitude 0f the problem that they have been found offhand. Flippant physicians to a serious illness are as farmers need to milk a cow neglecting the fodder is spoiled.
