Dire Dawa Administrative Council Integrated Resource

Water Works Design and Supervision Enterprise
The small rain, originated from the Indian Ocean and are brought by northwesterly
winds; while the heavy rains in the wet season come from the Atlantic Ocean with
northeasterly winds. The mean annual rainfall in the DDAC and the surrounding areas
ranges from about 1000 mm on the south to about 500 to 600 in lowland in the north.
As per Koppen's classification, the DDAC is characterized as Hot Semi-Arid Zone;
whereas the Eastern part of the Council is classified as Warm Temperate Climate Zone,
which is characterized by the mean daily temperature in the coldest month of less than
18 0 c and for more than 4 months it has a mean daily temperature of above 10 0 c. In the
Hot Semi-Arid Climate Zone (the western, north-western and south-western part), the
mean annual temperature lies between 17 0 c and 27 0 c; where as the mean annual rainfall is
between 410 and 800 mm. The rainfall is highly variable from year to year. Steppe type
of vegetation is very common.
The population of the Council is dominantly urban in character, economy dominated by
trade and agriculture with a current (2003) total population size of the Council 356,150.
Out of this total population, the urban and rural population sizes are estimated to be
260,759 and 95,391 representing 73.2 and 26.8 percent respectively.
In general the average population density is about 267 persons per square kilometer,
where as the average density of the urban is 9482 persons per km 2 and rural 73 persons
per km 2 . The total population size of the Council grew at the rate of 4.8 percent between
the two-censal periods (1984-1994), while the urban and rural population grew at the rate
of 5.5 and 3.5 percent respectively. In the rural areas, the Eastern and western parts of the
Council are relatively densely populated than the Northern part, which is dominantly
inhabited by pastoralists. The projection of population in the coming 30 years shows
728,297 and 138,826 people in the urban and rural respectively applying exponential
growth rate using high variant population. The average per capita income is low in
general.
The estimated expectation of life at birth for DDAC is not more than 50 years indicating
that the health conditions are generally poor, with only about 24% rural population 68%
urban population water supply coverage. Major endemic diseases causing the highest
morbidity and mortality among the DDAC population are mostly water-related
(water-carried water washed) communicable diseases such as malarias, intestinal
parasites, diarrhea, typhoid fever, etc. Literacy rate is about 57.41% among men and
45.73% among women. The Gross enrolment rates of children in primary schools are
69% and 55.5% for boys and girls respectively.
The natural environment of the Council is under extreme threat. The natural forest of the
Council and its surrounding has been cleared, the remaining forests cover in the
Administrative Council is less than 1% and the highest share of the landmass is covered
with shrubs and arid lands. It is found that, the major part of the Council (over 75%) is
found to be severely degraded area and 25 % is highly degraded. The soils of DDAC are
found to be highly susceptible to soil erosion under any circumstances. In the urban areas
especially Dire Dawa town there is a significant problem of sanitation and industrial
pollution in the Council. These pollutants are industries and municipal waste disposals,
Phase II- Data Collection - Site Investigation Survey & Analysis – DDAC - Main Report
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