Rural Households’ Vulnerability to Climate Change Induced Water Scarcity and Adaptation Strategies in Jawi Woreda, Northwest Ethiopia

severe and frequent rise in temperature and the failure of rainfall caused a shortage of water, which resulted in food insecurity in Ethiopia. The objective of this study is to assess rural households’ vulnerability to climate change-induced water scarcity and adaptation strategies in Jawi woreda, Northwest Ethiopia. Primary and secondary sources provided both qualitative and quantitative data. The primary data were gathered from 120 randomly selected respondents via a survey questionnaire and a key informant interview, while secondary data on temperature and rainfall were gathered from the National Meteorological Agency at the Beles Research sub-station from 2005 to 2022.Simple linear regression, standardized precipitation index, and water vulnerability index were applied for quantitative data, and an econometric method with a binary logistic regression model was used to identify the determinants of the farmer’s choice of adaptation strategy to climate change. The descriptive statistics result showed that 54.2% and 60% of the respondents perceived the existence of climate change with temperature and rainfall, respectively, and the overall water vulnerability index score of Jawi woreda was 0.437. In the study area, the temperature and rainfall trend results show that there is an increase in temperature and a decline in rainfall, keeping the existence of high variability. To cope with such variability, the commonly used adaptation practices that are employed by the majority of rural households at Jawi woreda are water harvesting, water and soil conservation, using irrigation, and forest conservation. All the findings of this study call for designing and implementing appropriate adaptation strategies in response to climate change