“When the water goes down, we remember the games”
A Photo Story on Groundwater Governance in Ethiopia
Groundwater is a key source of freshwater for drinking and irrigation that also has important ecological functions. But this common-pool resource is being rapidly depleted in many places around the world, due to the recent availability of cheaper well-drilling technologies and more affordable pumps, as well as rising pressure from climate change and larger populations that consume more nutritious crops and animal-source foods.
In Ethiopia’s Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region, groundwater resources are generally abundant to support expanding irrigation for agriculture, if managed sustainably. Doing so could lead to better incomes, livelihoods, and nutrition for millions of people. Despite this potential, groundwater recharge might not be sufficient to meet the growing demand as small-scale irrigation becomes more popular.
Because states are limited in their ability to regulate groundwater extraction, collective action at the community level is important to sustainably manage groundwater resources in hotspot areas. Behavioral games that simulate real-life resource use have shown promise as a way to improve resource governance. By letting participants see how crop choice affects aquifers firsthand, these games can help identify patterns in thinking and behavior, test management options, and shape mental models and understanding of relationships between users and the resource.
In 2021, IFPRI researchers from the Irrigation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation conducted a study in Ethiopia to assess the potential of behavioral game interventions to improve understanding of groundwater systems and the need for institutional arrangements to govern this shared resource. The research team adapted a game intervention that was originally developed for and piloted in India, tweaking it to suit the local context in Ethiopia.
The researchers focused on four woredas (districts) in the Gurage Zone around the Meki River catchment, where irrigation is practiced in confined aquifer areas. These can be managed by rural communities themselves through the adoption of appropriate institutions and measures to address declines in groundwater tables. In March 2021, 15 kebeles (village clusters) in South Sodo, East Meskan, Meskan, and Mareko woredas participated in the groundwater game intervention and another 15 kebeles participated as control sites.
After playing the game—explained in a short video that the team produced—community members met for a debriefing session where they discussed lessons learned. A major theme of the discussions was the realization that groundwater is a depletable resource. One male participant noted, “Previously, I didn’t know the groundwater will fall, I thought the water level [was] as it is.”
The researchers found that during the game, men and women made different decisions about extracting resources. Farmers made changes to how they managed groundwater when they were able to deliberate on water use decisions and make rules, such as punishing users who extracted too much water. The game also led to an increased understanding of groundwater dynamics, the importance of collective action in resource management, and the benefits of communication.
In September 2021, the research team held focus group discussions with the participants to identify medium-term effects from the intervention. The results showed that the intervention had sustained impacts on mental models related to groundwater resource characteristics and the effects of users’ choices on groundwater dynamics and availability. Even six months after the game, communities recalled the importance of communication and groundwater rules.
In May 2023, a group of IFPRI researchers, local collaborators, and visitors from Ghana on a South-to-South Exchange returned to some of the original research sites to see whether the medium-term effects remained more than two years after the game. The short answer is yes!
The group found that groundwater irrigation remains a strong and growing feature of the food production landscape in Gurage Zone, though groundwater levels differ by location. In some places, water tables have declined substantially since larger-scale, groundwater-fed irrigation took off in the dry season. In at least one location, declines in groundwater tables have affected access to domestic drinking water.
The need for water can have other serious, even dire, consequences. A farmer at a cooperative farm in Dida Halibo kebele, Mareko woreda, explained that water scarcity and the unavailability of machine drilling have cost people’s lives: “We hired laborers to dig manually and spent ETB40,000–50,000 [approximately US$700–900] per well. They dug deeper and deeper to get to the water, but we lost lives [when the borehole collapsed on the laborers].”
Using groundwater irrigation in the dry season is highly profitable for farmers growing vegetable crops, but their earnings are affected by the cost of diesel and difficulties with repairing their pumps. Farmers often join together to work in cooperatives, combining their land in the dry season to maximize the profits from using irrigation.
The IFPRI researchers found that community members still remember the lessons learned from the game, even two years later. One male farmer from Kuno Kertafa kebele, Eastern Meskan woreda, who had participated in the experimental games, reflected on his learnings from the game: “When the water goes down, we remember the games.”
Farmers who participated in the game or the focus group discussions—and even one farmers’ spouse—were able to recall key elements of the game. A woman farmer from Yetebon kebele, Meskan woreda, who played the game remembered, “We learned [about] the water consumption patterns and crop choices during the game.”
Many farmers are interested in switching from diesel to solar pumps. In recent times, solar pumps were distributed to farmers for free by government agencies and development partners. During a visit to Dida Halibo kebele, the research team saw a solar pump that an NGO gave to a farmer. This pump was valued at ETB180,000 (US$3,300) in the current market, according to one development agent.
Although solar irrigation pumps are a recent phenomenon in Ethiopia, the government has started to strongly support their use. In early May 2023, importing diesel-powered irrigation pumps was prohibited.
Promoting solar pumps would provide a huge relief to farmers, as they have minimal operational costs. Ensuring the appropriate size of solar pumps is important to make them fit for purpose and manage high upfront costs. This is an area where CGIAR’s NEXUS Gains Initiative is supporting solar investors. But the lower operational costs of these pumps could lead to greater groundwater depletion.
Given these recent developments, much more work is needed to support behavioral change for improved groundwater management by farmer communities, and to scale the pilot intervention to other locations in the country.
Claudia Ringer, Director, Natural Resources and Resilience (NRR); Tiruwork Arega, Research Officer, NRR; Hagar El Didi, Senior Research Analyst, NRR; Fekadu Gelaw, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics, Haramaya University; and Natnael Teka, independent consultant
IFPRI Blog / Issue Post / JULY 2023
MAP AREA
Intervention Locations
Photo Credit: IFPRI