Gereb Segen is a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

located in the Inderta ''woreda'' of the

Tigray Region The Tigray Region, officially the Tigray National Regional State, is the northernmost regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob, and Kunama people. Its capital and largest city is Mekelle. Tigray ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. The

earthen dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface an ...

that holds the reservoir was built in 2016 by the

Tigray Water Bureau Tigray may refer to: * Tigray Region, a region of Ethiopia * Tigray Province, a province of Ethiopia until 1995 * Tigrayan-Tigrinya people (disambiguation) **Tigrayans, an ethnographic group in Ethiopia **Tigrinya people, an ethnographic group in ...

, with the main aim of providing

Mekelle Mekelle ( ti, መቐለ, am, መቀሌ, mäqälle, mek’elē) or Mekele is a special zone and capital of the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Mekelle was formerly the capital of Enderta awraja in Tigray. It is located around north of the Ethiopi ...

with water. May Gabat dam

Challenges

In 2018-2019 the reservoir was unable to sustain the water needs of

* Pipe diameters are underfit * Leakage through the abutment Leakage from Gereb Segen dam

* Sediment deposition by

May Gabat May Gabat is a river of northern Ethiopia. Rising in the mountains of Inderta (2233 metres above sea level), it flows westward to Giba River which empties finally in the Tekezé River. The Gereb Segen reservoir has been built on this river in ...

river

Irrigation

Though the reservoir was not intended for irrigation, its seepage water is used in the downstream valley for irrigation. The lithology of the catchment is

Antalo Limestone The Antalo Limestone, also known as the Antalo Sequence, is a geological formation in Ethiopia. It is between 300 and 800 metres thick and comprises fossiliferous limestones and marls that were deposited in a reef. Marine microfossils have shown ...

. Part of the water is lost through

seepage Soil mechanics is a branch of soil physics and applied mechanics that describes the behavior of soils. It differs from fluid mechanics and solid mechanics in the sense that soils consist of a heterogeneous mixture of fluids (usually air and wat ...

; the positive side-effect is that this contributes to

groundwater recharge Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic process, where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge is the primary method through which water enters an aquifer. This process usually occurs in ...

, and it allows irrigation by the downstream communities.

Homonymous places

There is a (much smaller) reservoir with the same name, some 20 km to the southeast:

Gereb Segen (Hintalo) Gereb Segen is a reservoir located in the Hintalo Wajirat ''woreda'' of the Tigray Region in Ethiopia. The earthen dam that holds the reservoir was built in 2000 by SAERT. Dam characteristics * Dam height: 14.86 metres * Dam crest length: ...

References

{{reflist Reservoirs in Ethiopia 2016 establishments in Ethiopia Tigray Region Agriculture in Ethiopia Water in Ethiopia