The view from a small corner of the island..
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Raingauge Training at R3 in Beresa


Beresa

 

Rainfall recording started in Beresa in June 2004. The Beresa catchment is 2 km from Butajira, which is 200 km to the north of Awassa. This project area is the greenest of all the project sites. The main crops observed at the time of the visit included chilli/pepper and maize.


Topology and Geology
The project area is bordered to the north by the Dobena river, by the Dobo and Dobena (2000 m) ridges to the South and East and the hills of Beresa and Getema (3000m) to the west. The lowest point of the study area is 1945m. This project area is likely to be problematic as the Dobena river is one of the catchment boundaries. It is likely that there are several subcatchments within the defined area draining to the Dobena river at several different points. Two subcatchments are readily identified separated by a low ridge which is not shown on the topo map. There are several depressions in the catchment which appear to have no exit.


The underlying geology is volcanic lava flows, which outcrop in some areas. The lava has weathered to leave a sandy black soil which freely drains.


Hydrological features
There are no surface water features in the catchment, neither gulleys or drainage ditches, apart from the Dobena river itself, which makes it difficult to locate where the water exits the study area. There are no wells either; however, wells do exist on the other side of the Dobena river. Groundwater is likely to exist, however wells dug in these loose soils might easily collapse and reportedly there is a hard rock layer at depth which is impenetrable.
21 water harvesting ponds are to be constructed in the Kebele, 9 lined with plastic, the rest lined with cement. A Water harvesting pond was being constructed on the same farm as R3.

Rainfall for June 2004 - Feb 2005

Rainfall for June 2004 - Feb 2005 for the collecting raingauges in Beresa ranged from 580mm to 370mm. The recording raingauge recorded over 800mm for the same period. The reason for this discrepancy is not clear.

Copyright © Martin Hollingham