Ethiopia's Environmental Issues: A Detailed Report

This report provides an overview of the environmental challenges facing Ethiopia, focusing on three key areas: transportation and pollution, energy and electricity, and urbanization or development. The report highlights the increasing air pollution due to vehicle emissions and recommends government actions such as vehicle age measurement and emission checks. It also discusses Ethiopia's energy consumption patterns, with a high reliance on bio-energy and a growing demand for electricity, suggesting measures to improve energy conservation and introduce affordable cooking stoves. Furthermore, the report addresses the rapid urbanization in Ethiopia and its associated challenges like unemployment and infrastructure issues, proposing strategies for smart urbanization and development. The report is based on research from various sources and offers recommendations for addressing these environmental concerns.

Running head: ENVIRONMENT OF ETHIOPIA
Environment of Ethiopia
Name of the student:
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Author note

1ENVIRONMENT OF ETHIOPIA
Transportation and pollution
Ethiopia is facing tremendous increase in air pollution because of the excessive amount
of transportation using the street without proper emission standards of the environmental
organization. The problem of pollution is increasing rapidly due to lack of retirement policy
allotted for the vehicles. According to Alok, it was found out that 53.5% vehicles were aged
more than 20 years and 29.3% were aged more than 30 years. Most of the important pollutants
emitted from the automobiles included HC, NO2, CO2, CO and SO2.
It can be recommended that the government of Ethiopia should take a strong action in
measuring the age of all vehicles. They should impose financial penalty on those vehicles, which
are more than 10 years old. Apart from that, the government should take an initiative to keep a
check on the vehicles after every 3 months. The department for pollution control should closely
supervise all the vehicles on road and take necessary actions.
Energy and electricity
Ethiopia has a consumption of 92% energy by the domestic appliances, which is covered
by the bio- energy. However, the amount of 9000GWh/a is generated by 96% energy and 4%
wind energy. The country exports 11% of its entire energy (Mehmet Onur et al.). In contrary to
the import business, Ethiopia gets huge share of energy imported in the form of petroleum. As
the economy of the country is growing rapidly, therefore demand for energy is also increasing.
27% of the entire population in Ethiopia is only exposed to electricity grid. The people in the
rural areas are not willing to switch to improved cooking which is resulting in scarcity of
firewood (Md Alam Hossain et al.).

2ENVIRONMENT OF ETHIOPIA
It can be recommended that the government of Ethiopia should introduce cooking stove
for the rural population at a reasonable and affordable price. Moreover, strict laws should be
made to conserve electricity. Electric hooking needs to be banned from the country in order to
provide electricity to the entire country. By imposing strict laws, the country will be able to
conserve energy which will lead to electricity saving.
Urbanization or development
The urban centers in Ethiopia are playing the role of social transformation and have a
significant part in the country’s politics. It was found out that the urban population is increasing
at an excessive rate in Ethiopia. However, there is no structured action plan for managing the
growth of urban population. If it was done properly, then better opportunity could be posed in
terms of economic activity from agriculture to service industry. It is considered a challenge in the
country’s demography in terms of unemployment, poor infrastructure and housing (Abebe).
It can be suggested that the government of Ethiopia should overcome these challenges of
urbanization and develop the places, which are suitable for the people to work and stay. They
should think of better strategies to promote smart urbanization, which will lead to the country’s
progress.

3ENVIRONMENT OF ETHIOPIA
References
Mondal, Md Alam Hossain, et al. "Ethiopian energy status and demand scenarios: Prospects to
improve energy efficiency and mitigate GHG emissions." Energy 149 (2018): 161-172.
Ozlu, Mehmet Onur, et al. "Ethiopia–Urbanization review: urban institutions for a middle-
income Ethiopia." Washington. DC: World Bank Group (2015).
Tiwari, Alok. "Urban Air Pollution Caused by Automobiles in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Its
Health Consequences." IUP Journal of Environmental Sciences 5.3 (2011).
Zeleul, Abebe. "Urbanization for National Development in Ethiopia." (2006).