Chini is a small

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 control ...

located in

Melfa The Melfa is a river in Lazio, Italy. It rises in the Monti della Meta, flows south-west for about and joins the Liri near San Giovanni Incarico.''Carta stradale: Lazio 1:200000''. Istituto Geografico DeAgostini. . The source of the Melfa issu ...

(

Dogu’a Tembien Dogu'a Tembien (, "Upper Tembien", sometimes transliterated as Degua Tembien) is a woreda in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. It is named in part after the former province of Tembien. Nowadays, the mountainous district is part of the Southeastern Tigray ...

''woreda'',

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

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 Er ...

). The 151-metres long

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 and ...

that holds the reservoir was built in 1993 by the

Relief Society of Tigray The Relief Society of Tigray (abbreviated REST; ti, ማሕበራዊ ረዲኤት ትግራይ or ማረት, ''Maret'') is an NGO based in Tigray, northern Ethiopia. REST was founded in 1978 as an organisation providing relief efforts to ci ...

. It was mainly constructed for purpose of livestock watering. The

catchment A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, th ...

of the reservoir is 1.86 km² large, with a perimeter of 5.15 km and a length of 1800 metres. The reservoir suffers from rapid

siltation Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the increased accumulation (temporary or ...

. The lithology of the catchment is composed of

Ashangi Basalts The Ashangi Basalts are the earliest Tertiary volcanic rocks in north Ethiopia, hence they are in the lowest position. These dark porphyritic basalts are separated from the Mesozoic formations below it by basal conglomerates. The basalts hold phen ...

. Part of the water that could be used for irrigation 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 wa ...

; 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 ...

. Actually, in the wider surrounding of the reservoir, both upstream and downstream the level of the watertable has strongly raised, and the area has become remarkably greener.

References

{{reflist Reservoirs in Ethiopia 1993 establishments in Ethiopia Tigray Region Dogu'a Tembien