Haramaya University’s academic and research staff members, stakeholders and some representatives of Haramaya Watershed Communities held discussion on the history, Current Status, and future fate of “Participatory Integrated Lake Haramaya Watershed Development (PILHWSD)” at Resource Centeron 30 September 2019.

In the discussions two short presentations were made for the participants, Briefing on Backgrounds and Challenges Faced in the Process of PILHWSD was given by Dr.Abdulatif Ahmed, former coordinator of the watershed development. Following this, Mr. Teferi Taddesse (former technical coordinator of the watershed development) presented informing implementation successes entitled as Current Status and Future Fate of PILHWSD. The presentations depicted some successful implementations especially in fully rehabilitating the upper sub watersheds of Tinike and Damota. The challenges faced during the implementation includes weak involvement of the stakeholders, undetermined fate of (as it is neither a project nor a program) the PILHWSD, budget and others. Because of these limitations desired impact has not been achieved in restoring the watersheds and the Lakes (Haramaya and Tinike) as restoring the whole system of Lake Haramaya Watershed demands addressing various biophysical and socioeconomic issues that should encompass 15,000 hectares of land.

Following the presentations, discussion continued by asking questions, giving comments, and suggesting the future directions on PILHWSD. The comments include revising PILHWSD, strengthening the participation of stakeholder from local to national level, involving the communities in the watershed at large, bridging the gaps between the development and research so that, both can feed each other in the process of developing the watershed, arranging different platforms until different stakeholders and communities adequately take shared responsibilities in developing the watershed, and any other steps that will fetch the watershed development towards sustainable base.

In summary, Dr. JemalYusuf explained that rehabilitating Haramaya Watershed and restoring Lakes Haramaya and Tinike is the issue of struggle for survival which will enforce the University, stakeholders at all levels, and the communities in the watershed. Haramaya University will take its share starting from revising the development document, mobilizing the communities, and stakeholders towards integrated development of the watershed. Finally, he gave direction to the organizers of this discussion to arrange another platform in very near future for detail discussion that enable us to design future roadmap for the watershed development.