Drainage Deficit Hampers Mobility in Addis

At around 4.30pm, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013, a short, but heavy rain descended over Addis Abeba. The flood that resulted left people stranded along the Debre Zeit road, around Lancia. There were crowds of people along Lancia on one side and Cocrod Hotel across the road. People could neither cross the road nor board or disembark from taxis.

Getinet Lakew, 42, who works around Tele Garage along the same road, usually walks between work and home, around Gotera. That day he was one of those who found himself trapped at Lancia.

“I left the office before it started to rain, but it caught up with me,” he said.

The situation, which saw a flood unwilling to subside, catalysed conversations among complete strangers. A Lada taxi driver, too, had stopped his car because he could not drive under the circumstances.

Some of the people had to hurry for evening work, others for appointments. Fifteen minutes after the rain had stopped, the flood was still knee deep.

And, for some with an entrepreneurial spirit, that was a business opportunity. Three young people started carrying hurried by-standers across the road, each for five Birr.

“The price is fair for those who are rushing,” said Sisay Mengesha, one of the carriers. “I make a living out of car washing around here. Me and my colleagues have found helping people to cross an additional business.”

He was able to transport six people, while other more daring individuals took off their shoes and socks, rolled the legs of their pants up and waded across.

Getnet was loudly wondering why the road, which had been completed only a few years ago, did not have a proper drainage.

A little way up, where a gravel road splits from the asphalt, the flood has flowing directly into the compound of a residential house.  It was prevented from getting into the house only by the slightly elevated entrance.

“It is always the same when the rainy season comes. Children cannot go out alone and even we are afraid that it might spread disease. It just dries by itself after a day, since there is no outlet,” said Aynalem Tezera, 36, a mother of two, whose family have lived in the house for the past three years.

She added that her family would not be suffering in such a way if the main road had been made properly.

“I evacuate the service room during the summer, since it is at lower level and fills with floodwater. We all stay at home, even after the rain is over,” she said.

Although one could see small areas of floodwater escape through holes about every 50 metres, along this road, which goes from Stadium to Gotera, the flood simply avoids them.

Fekade Haile (Eng.), general manager of the Addis Abeba Roads Authority (AARA), admits there is a drainage problem  in the city.

“Drainage lines on the ring road and Bole road are better,” he suggested.

Drainage systems are mandatory in the contracts the Authority awards to contractors, and it is now preparing to make modification to its drainage requirements, according to Fekade.

The pipes that are used to carry floodwaters along roads do not have the capacity for the quantity of water they carry, says Ziad Woldegebriel, director general of the Ethiopian Roads Authority. Some roads, such as the ring road at Megenagna, also have design problems. Because of this, they collect water at the centre of the roads, rather than releasing it to the gutters, he says.

The problem could be mitigated, according to Fekade, if contractors had a solid understanding and background in engineering and hydrology.

“The land in the city is also full of ups and downs, which gives power to the floodwaters,” says Fekade.

The flood even enters into houses around Ras Mekonen Bridge in Arada district, commonly known as Seba Dereja.

Some of the Residents on the hill, which is sharply inclined, have covered the wall of their houses from the outside with additional walls. Others have created small canals to divert the flood into, which comes from Sidist kilo, the residents claim.

“It directly comes up from Entoto and Shiromeda during the rains, since there is no means of diverting it to rivers or big canals and taking it out of the city. We suffer every  rainy season. The flood leaps onto our roof when the rain is heavy,” said Asnake Abera, 26, who has lived at the Seba Dereja area since he was born.

He and his two sisters live in a two-room kebele house, from where they keep asking officials to transfer them to a condominium.

While the AACRA is responsible for drainage lines on main asphalt roads, the Addis Ababa Public Participation Project Office is also responsible to construct open ditches and bury tubes for the drainage of internal roads. This office collects 65pc of the project cost from the residents and contributes the 35pc from its own budget. In some places it mobilises the community to dig the ditches, according to Tigist Getachew, implementation support follow-up process owner at the project office. However, she admits that the public contribution sometimes gets diverted to other projects, such as cobblestone works, public kitchens or toilets, a complaint that Asnake made about his kebele.

“I would say that the drainage problem residents are facing has never received enough attention from the Administration,” says Asnake.

The office has constructed 300km of tube installation and 207.7kms of ditch throughout the year.

“It shows that there is more demand for drainage,” said Tigist.

Those flood-trapped around Lancia were joking that the Abay River had caught up with them as they waited for a very long time to get across to the other side.


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