1.1 Location

Hawassa town is located in southern part of Ethiopia, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State, in Sidama Zone at a distance of 275 km from Addis Ababa. It is bounded by Lake Hawassa on the west and north-west, Chelelaka swampy area on the east and south-east, Tikur Wuha River on the north and Alamura Mountain on the south.  Its astronomical location is 07⁰ 03' north latitude and 30⁰

29' east longitude.

1.2 Foundation

Historically, before Hawassa took its present shape, its surrounding area was covered by forest that served as a shelter for wild animals. The early settlers were the Sidama and Oromos whose lives depended on livestock raring and cultivation. Hawassa was founded in 1960 by Ras Mangesha Seyoum under the permission of Emperor Haile Selassie.  In 1961, 404 pensioned soldiers as well as their families were provided with plots of land to settle in the eastern part of the town. This is reckoned to have given an impetus to the growth and development of the town.  From 1960-1968, Hawassa served as the capital of a sub-administration of Yabella wereda, and it was designated the capital of the then Sidamo province in 1968.  Hawassa town began to be administered by a municipality in 1962.  Hawassa town has got its name from “Hawassa lake”, which in the Sidama language stands for “large or wide water body”.  Before the establishment of the town, the locality used to be known as”Adare”, which in Sidama language means “field of cattle”.  The availability of large grazing pasture and abundant water resource throughout the year attracted the highland farmers and the low land pastoralists.

Hawassa town is one of the reform towns in the region and it has a city administration consisting of eight sub cities and urban as well as rural kebelles.  The sub cities are named as Addis Ketema, Hayk Dar, Bahil Adarash, Misrak, Menahreya, Tabor, Mehal Ketema and Tula.

The first master plan of Hawassa was prepared by the Municipalities Department of the then Ministry of Interior, which served in guiding the development of the town until 1988 when another master plan was prepared by the National Urban Planning Institute (NUPI) in 1994.  The current plan which is named as Integrated Development Plan (IDP) was prepared by the Federal Urban Planning Institute in 2006.