The Dembel-Shalla Sub-Basin Multi-Stakeholder Platform is Taking Shape: First Technical Committee Meetings
Natural Resources under Pressure in the Dembel-Shalla Sub-Basin
The Dembel-Shalla sub-basin (DSSB) is one of the major four sub-basins in Ethiopia’s Rift Valley. With its rich natural resources – including lakes, national parks, and reserves – the region holds both environmental significance and strong economic potential for multiple sectors. These include tourism and hospitality, horticulture (particularly export flowers), fruit and vegetables, livestock rearing, smallholder crop farming and more.
However, the sub-basin is under enormous resource use pressure from anthropogenic and natural influences that jeopardise both the ecology and the socio-economic endeavours it supports. The use and management of water in the DSSB is not well planned and regulated, leading to excessive abstraction and uncontrolled pollution, resulting in decline of water quality and quantity.
Similar challenges are evident in land use: Unsustainable farming practices – such as deforestation, encroachment into buffer zones, and unregulated agrochemical use – contribute to land degradation, resulting in desertification, gully formation, and lake sedimentation. These problems in current water and land-based resources management can only be addressed collaboratively to enable a long-term sustainable development of the sub-basin.
Stakeholders Coming Together: Formation of the Partnership
As a result, around 50 partners from public, private and civil society organizations came together to establish the Dembel-Shalla Sub-Basin Multi-Stakeholder Platform (DSSB MSP), a stewardship partnership supported by the Natural Resources Stewardship Programme (NatuReS). They signed a Memorandum of Action for collective and coordinated efforts in June 2024, formalising membership structure and governing bodies, and combining their activities into a joint partnership action plan. The shared vision of the DSSB MSP is to see natural resources in the sub-basin developed and managed in an efficient, equitable and sustainable manner by 2035 through collective action – fostering a Just Transition that balances environmental stewardship, social justice, and economic development.

Getting to Work: First Technical Committee Meetings
Part of the governance structure of the partnership are three technical committees. Here, the thematic collaboration of the platform partners takes place and specific activities are defined and monitored. From March 25-27, these committees gathered for the first time in Batu town to develop operational plans for 2025, completing the formation of the platform. Now they are setting out to jointly drive the following activities:
- Water Allocation, Use and Management:
- Promoting a water use data monitoring system
- Identifying and promoting techniques for water use efficiency in the agriculture sector
- Raising awareness on up-to-date legislation and guidelines
- Delivering capacity building on efficient water management to key water users
- Water Quality, Pollution Control, Wetland and Lake Management:
- Supporting water quality and wetlands ecosystem monitoring
- Providing capacity building and technical guidance on wastewater management
- Raising awareness of water quality and pollution for water users
- Integrated Watershed Development and Management:
- Mapping erosion hotspot areas in the DSSB
- Identifying good practices in watershed management
- Providing targeted capacity development to stakeholders from the sub-basin



Looking Ahead
After three months, the committees will meet again to review progress and plan for further activities. Together with the stakeholders’ own activities these will be collected and aligned in the partnership action plan – a key tool of the Natural Resources Risk and Action Framework (NRAF), NatuReS’ guide for stewardship practitioners. Through these joint actions, the partnership contributes to a socio-ecological transformation that leaves no one behind – fostering inclusive, sustainable development and resilient ecosystems across the sub-basin.






Click on the technical committees below to see which stakeholders are involved where.
Water Allocation, Use and Management Technical Committee
Members:
- Oromia Region Water and Energy Bureau
- Central Ethiopia (CE) Region Water, Mining and Energy Bureau
- Oromia Region Environmental Protection Authority
- CE Region Environment and Climate Change Bureau
- Oromia Region Plan Commission
- CE Region Plan and Development Bureau
- Oromia Region Irrigation Bureau
- CE Region Irrigation Bureau
- SOS Sahel
- International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
- Meki-Batu Veg & Fruit Growers Union
- Ziway Roses PLC
Water Quality, Pollution Control, Wetland and Lake Management Technical Committee
Members:
- Oromia Region Water and Energy Bureau
- Central Ethiopia (CE) Region Water, Mining and Energy Bureau
- Oromia Region Environmental Protection Authority
- CE Region Environment and Climate Change Bureau
- Oromia Region Plan Commission
- CE Region Plan and Development Bureau
- Oromia Region Irrigation Bureau
- CE Region Irrigation Bureau
- Wetlands International Ethiopia
- Tamra for Social Development
- Adami Tulu Pesticide Processing Share Company
- Ziway Roses PLC
Integrated Watershed Development and Management Technical Committee
Members:
- CE Region Agricultural Bureau
- Oromia Region Agricultural Bureau
- Oromia Region Water and Energy Bureau
- CE Region Water, Mining and Energy Bureau
- Oromia Region Environmental Protection Authority
- CE Region Environment and Climate Change Bureau
- Oromia Region Plan Commission
- CE Region Plan and Development Bureau
- PHE-Ethiopia
- SOS Sahel
- Batu Caustic Soda Factory
- Abijata Shalla Soda Ash Factory