Ethiopia to Apply Japanese Tech for Disaster Prevention

The government of Japan, through bilateral aid, has completed high-quality project on mitigating landslides in Ethiopia since June 2011

The project has mainly focused on developing the capacity of Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) engineers that enable them to apply Japanese technology independently for disaster prevention.

Opening the Final Technical Transfer Seminar on “The Capacity Development Project for Countermeasure Works for Landslide” held at Sheraton Addis yesterday, Japanese Ambassador Kazuhiro Suzuki said that the project greatly contributes to the improvement of road safety all over Ethiopia.

“The government of Japan, through Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), imparts its experience and know-how to Ethiopia focusing on technology transfer and technical cooperation for the last five years.”

He said: “As the project to be completed by the end of December 2015, ERA is now expected to carry out landslide countermeasure activities independently and become the leading agency in encountering landslide challenges in Ethiopia.”

The Ambassador also said that the project has so far made effort to strengthen the organizational capacity of ERA in terms of landslide countermeasures. The project has also planed and implemented mid-and long-term countermeasure goals through developing a guideline to conduct landslide monitoring system for road repair.

Regarding the pilot sites, he said that the landslide countermeasure plants are located in the area of Abay Gorge on Trunk Road Route 3, which runs through Amhara State, the main granary of Ethiopia, and along the transport route for crude oil from South Sudan.

A delegate from the Ministry of Transport Abinet Solomon on his part said that the project highly contributes to sharing skill and practical experience to Ethiopian engineers in terms of landslide identification, assessment, design and effective countermeasure endeavors. Substantial and meaningful progress are expected from ERA engineers to reduce the effect of landslide on road infrastructure development, he added.

ERA Deputy Director General Bekele Neguse said that the Japanese Capacity Development Project has provided hands-on guidance on improving technical capacity to ERA engineers through collaborative work with Japanese experts.

He also said that in this closing year of the project, ERA has established a Landslide and Slope Stability Team (LSST), specialized in landslide investigations and countermeasures skills, and set to work independently to sustain the technical knowledge gained from Japanese experts.

Source: The Ethiopian Herald

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• Flood damage