Aba Hawi: Patriot of Environmental Rehabilitation from Tigray, Ethiopia

Participants of the learning and sharing event organized on Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) including Recharge, Retention and Reuse (3R) and Multiple Use System (MUS) from 23 – 27 February 2014 in Mekele packed into the 23 seats mid-bus and the remaining got on the double cabin pick up trailing from behind. The journey began to Abreha Weatsbeha – a place to the North of Mekele named after and famous for the rock hewn church constructed by the saintly kings, Abrha and Atsbeha.  

However, this group of people was not primarily interested in the historical significance of the place. They were rather drawn by the reports of environmental rehabilitation that transformed the area from one of the most food insecure places in one of the most degraded regions in the country to a symbol of hope and possibility even beyond the national boarder.   

The journey took about one and half hours of drive from the Mekelle town. Along the way, we saw several steep mountains that appear to be well suited to climbing and trekking. But as a group more inclined to environmental mission than physical adventures, our eyes were sweeping across the vast expanse of mountain ranges to capture the pleasant views of the vegetation coverage scattered around all over the place.  The bumpy and half gravel road increased our curiosity on what kind of exemplary restoration site we will come to see at its end. 

You may not find this view very much amazing if you are comparing it with places of dense tropical forests. To be filled with wonder of the available vegetation coverage in the area, you should have an idea of what this place looked like to some 15 to 20 years ago. Or you have to first visit other parts of the same region where the mountains were not covered quite by as much vegetation as this one at this time of the year. This period is not only the pick dry season of the year, but also the driest year with little and erratic rainfall registered in the past 15 years in the area, Dr. Kifle Woldearegay, an academician and a researcher from Mekele University, who was leading the team remarked along the way. 

The man at the forefront of environmental transformation  

As the team arrived at the natural gateway to Abreha Weatsbeha, following a rugged road that branches left along the way to Adigrat, one name started lingering around drawing the attention of the visiting team – Aba Hawi. We started to pock out of the window to have a glance at the man who just joined the team on a motor bike. A short sturdy guy wearing a yellow cup mounted down from his bike and got on one of the group cars.  Then the entire team headed on close to the foot of one of the mountain ranges that seemed to encircle the entire area of Abreha we Atsbeha.

Abrha we Atsbeha has lost its natural beauty and productivity to erosion and sever degradation from centuries of cultivation and over utilization. Year by year it failed to support the lives of its inhabitants leaving them in sever distress until no hope could be foreseen except resettlement. 

Despite the widely held apprehension shared among the authorities and many members of the community, but for someone with a deep passion for his birth place like Aba Hawi, translated as “man of fire” in the local language, resettlement was not an option. This man decided to stay behind. He took what many called "mad" idea to start working on the landscape and rehabilitate the watershed, to make it productive, or perish in the same place where the remains of thousands of people were scattered across the mountains from the bitter days of the civil war during the Derge regime. For him, that was the source of inspiration and unwavering commitment he has to the place and the people in the area. “They were all sacrificed for this generation to live in peace and freedom. And I have to sacrifice myself for the next generation to live in a productive environment well preserved and protected,” Aba Hawi reiterated his commitment.  

As we left our vehicles, we saw a number of people scattered along the ranges of the hills involved in building terraces and stone bunds to manage runoff that has degraded their land over the past several decades. We heard from the locals that people in this region are expected to spend a minimum of 20 days a year to get involved in such kind of communal activities free of payment to ensure the rehabilitation of the environment for them to live and prosper in their own native land. 

A woman carrying a child on her back is part of a group engaged in environmental rehabilitation activities being carried out in Abreha we Atsbeha, Tigray.

Watershed and natural resource management is not a hobby for these people; it’s a matter of life and death. They had to spend the summer days working on their land and on the upper catchment to increase its water harvesting and storage capacity. When it rains, it rains in large quantity that has both posed a great challenge and bring opportunity to the area. Prior to the restoration, the run off and the flood leave the catchment eroding the topsoil, washing the nutrients, forming deep gullies with only rocks and barren land remaining behind. Now with the ongoing intervention heavy rain has become an opportunity to recharge the ground water, serving as buffer for dry seasons.
 

Environmental re-engineering in practice  

Aba Hawi was full of enthusiasm and energy to explain the hurdles and the great efforts the community has to make following the exemplary leadership of a strong and dedicated natural leader of exceptional caliber.

Aba Hawi has never been to school or received any formal education of hydrology or natural resource management type. But his understanding of the natural landscape and the concepts and applications of environmental conservation methods and approaches was mesmerizing even to those professionals within the visiting team with advanced level of trainings and years of experience in natural resource management. 

He led the team along the rugged terrains some distance up the hill to show the mechanisms the community has placed to control the flood coming down the hills in full force even for a few days in a year. The community has constructed check dams with bundles of stones and gabions cemented with mud that are also used to collect portion of the running water to help recharge the ground water down the watershed. To protect the structure not to crumble down under the force of the flooding, Aba Hawi told us other similar barriers have also been constructed up the hill. He also pointed out the purpose of the ‘spill way’ left to the side of the pond that would allow the water to continue flowing out and down after a certain level of water is collected in the pond.

Aba Hawi took the team a little away down the hill following the water course to show us another similar structure with different purpose. “This was not constructed to collect the running water as the above one. As the flood enters in one side, it rotates within the structure before it continues flowing out through the outlet with much less speed and force. As a result, other structures down the catchment area will not be threatened as much as they would without such kind of intervention.” Everyone in the group looked one another stupefied with the level of understanding and clarity of expressions this man elaborates the application of environmental management techniques. 

Aba Hawi said that eleven check dams were constructed along the same water course all the way down the hill which helped recharge the ground water in the surrounding area. He also pointed out that there should not be more than 35 to 40 meters distance between two check dams so as not to cause another gulley emerging in between. As a result of these structures, the community is now able to tap into the ground water at a depth of 3 to 4 meters in exactly the same places where the water table used to be deeper than 13 meters and with low yield.

Reaping the benefits

Now, following the conservation activities started ten years ago, 388 hand dug wells were dug out along this catchment area where people are carrying out irrigation practices using the waters from the wells. Aba Hawi expressed his gratitude to a man commonly called in the community Aba Melaku (a local equivalent of his first name, Angel Olaran) the general manger of Wukro Saint Mary College, who provided the community with 138 triddle pumps that have been extensively used to pump the water out to irrigate their plots. Then Relief Society of Tigray (REST) complemented their effort by providing electric pumps, which altogether made possible to irrigate 50 to 60 hectares plot of land in this catchment area. 

The community planted cereal crops such as Teff, sorghum and millet and other fruit trees. Aba Hawi noted the boost in productivity in this area as a result of all the painstaking efforts made to rehabilitate the environment. Putting aside the incomes from cereal crops production, he said to have earned 78,000 birr (close to USD 3800) annually from fruit production alone. Last year, he obtained 86,000 birr (more than USD 4000) revenue only from the sale of orange fruits. As a result he has now proclaimed proudly to become the richest farmer in the area. Apart from his well constructed house in Abreha Weatsbeha, he also owned another house in the nearby town of Wukro. He also has a mid-bus used for public transportation services adding yet another source of income not relying on the natural resources.  

Climbing the hills

All this did not come without a personal cost on his side. Initially, Aba Hawi had some strong resistance from the community to join his effort on environmental rehabilitation. Some were not happy about his radical ideas of natural resources management interventions that appeared to them an impossible task to accomplish. He even got his house burned down, and he knew it was the work of some culprits among the community to frustrate his ambition. He was also at logger head with some of the local authorities who were concerned with his aggressive intervention efforts that did not wait for their blessing and sometimes even go against their decisions. Hence, at some point he was charged and brought in front of higher officials for reprimand. All these did not stop him. His strong conviction and tangible evidence on the ground put him in a more convincing stance than his adversaries who failed to stop him from making strides in his efforts of to rehabilitate environmental.

Awards and recognitions

The efforts of the community and the dedication of Aba Hawi have not gone unnoticed at national and international arenas. Mekele University has given him the recognition for the exemplary leadership and environmental transformation being realized in the area. The university awarded him 350,000 birr (about USD 17500) and promoted the success of environmental rehabilitation realized in the community at international arenas. That was the reason the community’s effort and achievement has been represented by Aba Hawi at the Rio +20 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Brazil conducted in June 2012. On the occasion, he received The Equator Prize for sustainable development along with a monetary award of USD 25,000 on behalf of the community. He is also hopeful to receive more recognition for the plantation of acacia tree which proved to grow faster just in three years compared to the six years period required for the same plant to grow in Niger. Abreha Weatsbeha is also expecting to host an international event on environmental management practices, in which their success will be a show case of environmental rehabilitation for others from around the world to follow suit.  

He presented the award to the community for further rehabilitation of the environment to be carried out in the area which would help ensure the realization of his ambition – making Abreha Weatsbeha a paradise where people will come to relax and enjoy the fresh breathes from the green vegetation covering the entire mountain ranges. “Next time you come here, you are going to pay an entrance fee. We have the plan to set up a gate to effect the collection of payments to visit our land.” We all laughed together, but he seems to be quite serious about his intention.