The Oromia Regional State has started the construction of an irrigation dam in Ambo town of West Shoa Zone, a project expected to cost 3.2 billion Br. The Dam is designed to irrigate about 5,000ha of land.

The Dam is being built jointly by the Ethiopian Construction Works Corporation and the Oromia Water Works Construction Enterprise. Located in the upper Guder area, the Dam can hold 57 million cubic metres of water, is expected to be finished in three years and is currently five percent complete.

The Ethiopian Construction Works Corporation, a company that was re-established in December 2015 and has a track record of building water supply projects in Dessie and Adama, is undertaking the first lot of the project, mainly the headwork, which includes digging the dam and building the canals. The Oromia Water Works Construction Enterprise is in charge of the second lot, which includes building irrigation infrastructure and making sure the water is distributed to the farmers.

The Ethiopian Construction Design & Supervision Works Corporation is a consultancy group that specialises in water and energy projects and road and tunnel construction and will supervise the construction of the Dam. The project is expected to create jobs for 200 people and eventually benefit 12,300 households.

The project will introduce irrigation in areas that are mostly cultivated by subsistence smallholder farmers who currently depend on unreliable rainfall, according to Abeje W. Michael, project manager at the Ethiopian Construction Works Corporation.

"The introduction of irrigation in the area will not only reduce risks associated with climate variability," said Abeje, "but will also help farmers transform their production systems and capture benefits from connections with markets."

Guder Dam is among the three dams that were recently launched in the Regional State. The other projects are located in Chelchel Raytu Bale and Welmel Bale areas. The three dams are expected to irrigate a total of 20,000ha of land and benefit 39,000 households and are all funded by the Regional State and the Ministry of Water, Irrigation & Energy.

Ethiopia has a significant advantage when it comes to building irrigation projects thanks to its abundant surface water resources, according to Kebede Debelo, head of rural agriculture and water irrigation in West Shoa Zone.