A combination of both water supply and demand management was found to be the appropriate approach to address the grave social and economic problems of the Berki basin. The project resulted in development and adoption of the Berki Basin IWRM Plan with the concrete measures ranging from legal, institutional, financial to technical measures.
Value added of the participatory approach is that communities are now better aware of the water resources management issues, and they understand implications of their practices on others.
The existence of the partnerships also challenges long-held ideas and practices entrenched in linear planning and single agency responsibility in the region and at the watershed level. The establishment of multi-stakeholder forums at the regional, Berki and wereda levels has given the opportunity for interaction among various stakeholders. This is also providing an opportunity to lay a framework for integrating/coordinating activities by various sectors/stakeholders.
As a result of the establishment of the multi-stakeholder platforms and the various stakeholders’ consultations, water-related disputes and conflicts have been minimized. There is now recognition of the importance of the multi-stakeholder partnerships at the local level and working together is viewed as a way to resolve water issues at the local level. For example, two key conflicts in the catchment were resolved without any legal or administrative intervention.
Although most stakeholders at federal and regional levels do recognize the difficulty in harmonizing administrative and hydrological boundaries, in Berki the catchment is considered a management unit despite the administrative boundaries. An integrated watershed development and management plan has already been prepared for Berki, and NGOs and government bodies have committed to implement the plan as part of their regular development programme within the partnership framework.