Walking along Lake Hawassa recently, I felt a mix of disbelief, concern, and urgency. The lake, meant to sustain life and livelihood in the city, is visibly choking.  

Despite years of research, awareness campaigns, and repeated warnings, pollution continues to escalate. Every day, industrial effluents, municipal wastewater, household waste, pharmaceutical residues and agricultural runoff flow unchecked into the lake. Weak risk governance, fragmented enforcement, fragmented enforcement, and institutional issues are allowing the crisis to intensify. The window for corrective action is rapidly closing - stressing the call for action now.

This reality was underscored during a recent   awareness-raising event I coordinated in Hawassa under the theme “Unite for Cleaner Hawassa.” Government officials, community leaders, religious figures, elders, students, academia, and private sector representatives came together, united by concern.

What struck me most was the depth of concern across sectors, and depth of alarm. Pollution is no longer an abstract idea, but a lived, daily reality for the people of Hawassa, affecting health, livelihoods and dignity.

I initially approached the issue analytically, reviewing recent studies, and listening to researchers present data on industrial effluents, municipal wastewater, agricultural runoff, and pharmaceutical waste.  The evidence left little room for doubt. The evidence showed that Lake Hawassa is at high risk, and the pressures on its ecosystem are intensifying.  

But data alone felt insufficient.  I spent time walking through the city, along the lake, and through drainage channels to ground-truth the evidence. What I saw confirmed the science.  Tons of solid waste are generated daily, plastic debris lines the shoreline, drainage ditches carry waste, including pharmaceuticals, from households, institutions and industry directly into the lake [1,2]. This created ecological stress.