Awra Amba RJ 300612 EN - Contacter un comité local d'Attac

2. Background history and geographical situation
2200 m) and is occupied by crops at 88 %, by grass (22 ha) and forest at 3 % each, and by
homesteads at 6 %. The major crops that grow in the area are tef, millet, nuge, maize, beans and peas
(ORDA, nd, cited by At05/26-27). Precipitation is about 1440 mm water a year according to ORDA,
but between 1200 and 1250 mm acc. to ILRI and MoA (2005). The people suffer malaria, worsened
by poor feeding conditions (At05/99).
One of the kebeles of the Fogera woreda is Woji-Arba-Amba one (Me09/4) (or Arba-Amba acc. to
Yi07; or Wojeina-Arvamba acc. to At05/28; or Wej Arba Amba acc. to CSA, 2007/325: Question 14
in Annex), which administers Awra Amba as well as the villages (gotoch) of Maksegn, Dej Mesk,
Jib Gudguad: see Picture 3. Maksegn is the village where are located the primary school used by
Awra Amba children till 2009 and the market where the Awra Amba inhabitants buy and sell
(Yi07/62). This kebele had 8 908 inhabitants in 2007 (CSA, 2007/325), and more than 10 000 in
2008 according to Me09/76, which seems surprising in comparison with CSA figure.
The village of Awra Amba is a part of this kebele. It is located 13.7 km far from Woreta, 68 km from
Bahar Dar, and 630 km from Addis Ababa (Me09/75): see Figure 7 and Figure 8. To go here, you
have to leave the sealed Bahar Dar - Gondar road and around one kilometre after Woreta drive eight
to ten kilometres over a road sealed in 2010 in the direction of Debre Tabor and then a 2-kilometre
track to the South, paved by Awra-Amba community (At05/28). The location of the village is called
Turigne or Turegn (At05/28; Yi07/46), Thuregne or Taika acc. to Me09/4 & 29 (Question 15 in
Annex): see Picture 4.
Picture 4:
Territory of The Awra Amba community, with at middle-distance, on the right of the
boscage and in the front of the village, the weaving workshop.
The village of Awra Amba borders the villages of Quarke to the south, Tizaba (or Tizab) and
Maksegn to the east, Arba Chane to the west, and Jib Gudguad to the north west (At05/28; Yi07/44).
According to ORDA (nd, cited by At05/28 and repeated by Ya08/50), the total land area of the
community is 43 ha, including 28.2 ha cultivated land, 11 ha grass, 1.3 ha protected as bush, and
2.5 ha settlement. The village of Awra Amba would have thus half of the grass of the sub-watershed
of Awra Amba, which is 16 times wider, which is surprising (Question 11 in Annex). However,
according to Ya08/97 and Jo10b/2, the surface of the community would be only 17.5 ha, including
10.2 ha crops where fallowing is not practiced and fertility medium. The site has a good vegetation
cover, especially Acacia and Eucalyptus, which are very common in the Awra Amba area. But
deforestation remains a challenge (Ya08/50).
This small surface area gives a population density around four times higher than in the surroundings:
930 inh./km 2 in 2007, while it is 247 inh./km 2 in Fogera woreda according to the census of the same
year (CSA, 2007) – these densities being in 2005 respectively 847 and 181 inh./km 2 according to
At05/39. The density of the community would be even 2286 inh./km 2 if we accept a surface area of
17.5 ha.
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