Effects of urban development on the roadside drainage: a case of 07 kebele in dire dawa city, Ethiopia.

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.