Consultative Meeting and field trip held on 15-16 Oct 2016 in Finote Selam town by inviting watershed experts from Bureau of Agriculture, 4 universities and 20 watershed experts from 20 Woredas affected by gullies. The meeting has disseminated the outputs of PEER science Project that was commenced with the support of USAID before 4 years in three watersheds (Debre Mawi, Bir-Enechilala and Mizewa). http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/PEER/PGA_069212. According to the meeting, to raise the awareness of the public on the role of gullies becoming major soil loss and their rehabilitation have taken longer time. As a result of wider public participation in this project, it is becoming effective and in return the community is benefiting from rehabilitation of gullies.
During the meeting, Dr. Seifu Admassu (project PI), and three PhD students (Assefa Derebe, Desalegn Chanie and Mesret Belachew) have presented research results about watershed hydrology and soil loss that have been done in Debremawi and Bir- Enchelala Kebeles. The presentations showed that hydrology (subsurface flow) has a key role in gully erosion, the rehabilitation should consider how to drain groundwater or lower water table and gulley head treatment is the most effective mechanism to reduce gully expansion to reduce the overall soil loss with watersheds.
Finally, participants pooled from different woredas, Universities and Agriculture offices have visited the project sites where gully head treatment practiced and confirmed the Faculty of Civil and Water Resources Engineering has shown encouraging progress and they have driven big lesson from experience sharing.
