Rising on the Ts’ats’en plateau of Dogu’a Tembien in northern Ethiopia, it flows northward to empty finally in the Giba and Tekezé River.

Such dams lead to temporary water ponding, spreading of peak flow over the entire channel width, and sediment deposition.

After testing under extreme flow conditions (including two heavy storms) it appeared that 60% of the dams resisted strong floods, particularly in the upper segment of the river.

Neighbouring farmers appreciate such structures to control first-order torrents with coarse bed load because the technique is cheap and can be easily installed.

[1] Boulders and pebbles encountered in the river bed can originate from any location higher up in the catchment.