Abstract:
An effective and efficient urban drainage system is very important for any urban area to
discharge its runoff and wastewater for a better and healthy environment. The rapid urban
expansion in Dire Dawa city and lack of controlling informal settlement has led to the
massive increase in the human settlement which is growing faster than the rate at which
the drainage network is being enhanced causing a mismatch between service and
urbanization.
For this reason, the main objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of urban
development on the roadside drainage problem and the remedial measure of 07 kebele in
Dire Dawa city. An exploratory and descriptive type of research methods were used to
describe and explore the existing roadside drainage condition. Field survey, questionnaire
and in depth interview with respondents were methods of data collection. In this study, data
was analyzed with the help of Microsoft- Excel, ArcGIS 10 and SPSS version 20 software
and the analyzed data was presented in tables, charts, graphs and percentages.
The results of the study indicated that, the major existing roadside drainage lines in the
study area have lower capacity than the runoff from the surrounding area. From the total
lengths of roadside drainage existed in the study area, only 40.8% of the side drainage can
convey safely the runoff into the water ways. The main factors that causing the roadside
drainage were improper waste disposal, lack of community awareness, lack of frequent
clearance of roadside drainage line, informal settlement and damaged roadside drains due
to urban expansion. The effects of poor roadside drainages were included road failure,
destroys resident’s property, dirtying the vehicle of the road users and urban flooding.
From the total length of roadside drainage, 59.2% have low hydraulic capacity than the
runoff water from the surrounding area. This study strongly recommends that frequently
clearance of roadside drainage, enhancement of community awareness to drainage system
and proper waste management should be done in the study area to avoid the causes for
roadside drainage problem. It also, reconstruction of road and proper side drainage with
good capacity should be needed to convey the runoff from the catchment in the study area.
