Across Ethiopia’s rolling highlands, lush coffee forests, bustling cities, and shimmering Rift Valley lakes, ‘water is life’ as it is anywhere else. But, it’s under threat due to inadequate sustainable management of water resources. But a strategic new initiative in Integrated Water Resource Management is charting a path towards sustainable management of water resources in the five basins. The Basin Management Support for Resilient, Inclusive Growth, and Harmonized Transformation (BRIGHT) Project, part of Ethiopia’s National Integrated Water Resource Management Program (NIWRP), was started in 2024 and it was officially launched in Abbay, Awash, Tekeze (jointly launched in Addis Ababa), Omo-Gibe Basin (launched in Jimma town), and Rift valley Lakes Basin (event held at Arba Minch town). The BRIGHT project heralds an innovative integrated approach to improving the country’s water and land stewardship. The five-year project (2024–2028), is funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) and the European Union (EU). Touching upon ten regions, one city administration, 71 zones, and 724 woredas, the Project stands as one of Ethiopia’s most ambitious integrated water resource management efforts to date. Beyond improving water management, the BRIGHT project seeks to build resilience and improve livelihoods of millions of Ethiopians by implementing IWRM to improve water management and reducing communities’ vulnerability to climate change and water-related risks. It aims to transform environmental “hotspots” where water stress, land degradation, and climate risks should be addressed to transform those areas into thriving “hope spots” where people, ecosystems and the economy can flourish through simultaneous interdependence.
Basin-level Launches for a National Mission
The BRIGHT Project was kicked off in the five basins with three project launch events, that brought together federal ministries, regional leaders, basin authorities, WLRC, researchers, development partners, and local communities as moments of national resolve.
Launch of BRIGHT for Omo-Gibe Basin (Jimma, March 21, 2025)
In the coffee heartland of the Omo-Gibe Basin, over 150 stakeholders gathered for the project launch on March 21, 2025. A key message delivered by Dr. Gete Zeleke, Director General of WLRC, reads:
Our basins are the arteries of Ethiopia’s economy, biodiversity, and culture — but they are under severe stress. By taking urgent, science-based, inclusive actions, we have to save these life-giving systems. Together, through BRIGHT, we can restore them — not just for today, but for generations to come. Thanks to EKN’s support and MoWE’s strong commitment for the project, BRIGHT will benefit millions of Ethiopians, and we earnestly call upon the Basin’s staffs stakeholders and communities to own and implement the project under the oversight and support of MoWE and WLRC.
State Minister for Water Resource Management at the Ministry of Water and Energy H.E. Dr. Abraha Adugna emphasized the government’s commitment to strengthening technical, managerial, and institutional capacity at all levels with projects such as BRIGHT. He remarked:
BRIGHT is not just a project; it’s a call to action. It’s about empowering regions, equipping basin offices, and closing the gaps that have long hindered practicing sustainable water resource management. It’s a project providing live practical platform for joint planning, action, progress monitoring and shared, learning and accountability. So, actors and stakeholders in the Basin are strongly advised to own and lead the BRIGHT activities to fruition.
H.E. Jelmer van Veen, First Secretary for Water Affairs at the EKN, on his part acclaimed the collaborative spirit being witnessed in the initiative, underscoring the need for more robust partnerships across government, academia, the private sector, and local communities. He vowed EKN’s readiness to support the project to succeed. The basin-level actors including local administration and stakeholders utterly expressed their eagerness to engage in implementation of the project at grassroots level.
The Launch for Abbay, Awash, and Tekeze Basins (Addis Ababa, April 8, 2025)
On April 8, 2025, the BRIGHT project was launched for the Abbay, Awash, and Tekeze basins — containing lion’s share of water use for Ethiopia’s economic and hydropower generation, agriculture, hydropower, and urban growth. The key actors and stakeholders in the three basins were brought together in in Addis Ababa and all of them asserted their readiness to collaborate and engage in implementing the project.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Gete called for joint practical action: “This launch is about setting priorities, fostering teamwork, and acting together. Only through collective ownership can we achieve and sustain meaningful outcomes.” And H.E. Dr. Abraha remarked, “The BRIGHT Project has enormous potential to transform water resource management. But its success depends on you — on your ideas, energy, action and ownership. Together, let’s turn plans into life-changing results on the ground. Let’s transform today’s hotspot areas to sustainable hope spots.”
Participants stressed the need to integrate local knowledge with cutting-edge research and policy innovation, recognizing that Ethiopia’s future hinges on harnessing indigenous local wisdom with science-driven approaches and practices, and building resilience as a springboard condition into socio-economic growth and subsequent sustainable development. They also affirmed their commitment for a successful implementation of the BRIGHT project initiatives in their respective basins and sub-basins. There were 120 participants drawn from the Ministry of Water and Energy (MoWE), Ministry of Planning and Development (MoPD), Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Ministry of Irrigation and Lowland Livelihoods (MoILL), Basin Administrative Offices, regional Bureaus for water, agriculture, irrigation and lowlands, selected zones and woredas, as well as universities located within the basin.”
Launch of BRIGHT for the Rift Valley Lakes Basin (April 11, 2025)
The Arba Minch of BRIGHT for the Rift Valley Lakes Basin focused on the preparations to improve water resource management in basin — which hosts unique ecosystems, diverse climatic landscapes, fisheries, agriculture, and tourist attraction heritages under growing threat from falling water levels, pollution, and competition for resources. Dr. Gete called for concerted actions to save and ensure the sustainability of the lakes, their biodiversity, and the communities that depend on them.” H.E. Dr. Abraha reaffirmed the government’s dedication: “BRIGHT is about integrated, basin-wide planning. It’s about embedding resilience into development and ensuring no basin or community is left behind.”
Arba Minch City Administration Mayor Dr. Mesfin Menza added a passionate local voice: “This project comes at a critical time. We face urgent water and land challenges that demand collective action. BRIGHT gives us a platform to restore hope — let’s seize this opportunity for our city, our lakes, and the future generations.”
The participants at the launching event affirmed a renewed commitment to transform science into action and partnerships into progress, setting the stage for years of joint effort. More than 70 participants were brought together from the Ministry of Water and Energy (MoWE), Ministry of Planning and Development (MoPD), Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Ministry of Irrigation and Lowland Livelihoods (MoILL), Basin Administrative Offices, regional Bureaus for water, agriculture, irrigation and lowlands, selected zones and woredas, as well as Arba Minch University.
A Vision of Hope and Transformation
What makes BRIGHT stand out is its people-centered approach. It goes beyond technical solutions and infrastructure, weaving together implementation following the IWRM approach, governance, knowledge, local ownership, It strengthens basin administration offices; develops integrated, climate-smart management plans; establishes learning sites to fuse evidence and theory into practice; establishes state-of the art basin information systems, co-creates, shares and manages knowledge; and, most importantly, involves communities as key agents of change. As such, BRIGFHT installs hope and transformation at local levels.
Words Recurring Across the Basins
At every launch event, the messages of Dr. Gete, Dr. Abraha, Dr. Tena and the stakeholders emphasized the need for a coordinated action to realise a shared vision:
“Let us work together,” urged Dr. Gete, “to manage our water resources for the generations to come; to use our rivers as fairly shared common goods that unite us as one people, one country, and one shared destiny.”
“Let us invest on water, because when we invest on water, we invest on health, food security, economic growth, and the well-being of every Ethiopian.” H.E. Dr. Abraha.
“Managing water resources sustainably is our top priority not an option. And we have to join hands at all levels now.” Dr. Tena.
We cannot wait until the BRIGHT activities are brought home to us; and we are eager to work with the support of this nicely designed project. Local level actors and stakeholders.
As Ethiopia confronts the pressures of climate change and competing demands for water, the BRIGHT Project offers a beacon of hope — demonstrating that with strong leadership, partnerships, and determination, today’s environmental threats can become tomorrow’s opportunities. One message audaciously resounded across the basins: the future of Ethiopia’s water belongs to all of us — and together, we can make it bright.
