Buleen Horaa lafa seenaa Oromoo Gujii keessati yaadatamtuufi iddoon guddaan kan kennamuufiidha. "BULEEN HORAA" yeroo dhiyoo keessati gara Godina Gujii Dhihaatti akka jijjiramtus beekkameera, kanaafuu Uummanni naannoo keennaa baga gammaddan ammas irra deebi' baga gaammaddan jeechuu barbaada.GALATOOMAA barreessan barataa ______ HARAMAYAA YUUNIVERSIITII irraa. urrently,BULE HORA is going to be separated from BORENA ZONE and becomes independent zones of GUJII GIRJA,the owner of the town.commented by DUUBAA . Bule Hora is the current and Original name of the town that had changed in to agere maryam or hagere maryam by the time ruler of the country for 60 years to use the name of their language instead of the name of the language of Guji Oromo, the local people of the town.
Bule Hora (X-Agere Maryam) town was founded in 1923 (1915 E.C). The town’s municipality organized in 1942 (1934 E.C). Her first master plan was prepared in 1968 (1959 E.C). It is the seat of the Bule Hora District Administration and hosts institutions such as banks (Cooperative Bank Of Oromia and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia), Technical Vocational and Education Training Institute, Colleges, Hospital, Oromia Credit and Saving Share Company, Ethiopian Electric and Light Power corporation Area Station, Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation Sub Area Office, above twenty Coffee Processing Plants and many MSEs, etc.
Location The town is located in the Oromia National Regional State at the distance of 467 km away from Addis Ababa to the south on the international road, which connects Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa. In addition, the town is at the crossroad of different regional and zonal roads. Astronomically the coordination of Bule Hora town is found between Longitude 38014’0’’ East and Latitude 5038’0’’ North (Wikimapia.org: 2008).
Population The total population of the town is 33,428. Among this number about 54.5 percent were females and the rest 55.5 percent were males. This warns concerned bodies that they must try their best to generate more employment for women than for men in order to decrease urban poverty and social issues.
Among the town’s population of 8,363 households that consist 7,594 male and 769 female, female household accounts only 9 percent of the town’s total house holds. This indicates how females are marginalized from property ownership and how deep the gender bias expanded in the town. Therefore, the concerned body must work on the issues in order to decrease differences.
According to the information gathered from the town administration more than 62 percent of the town’s people are in the productive age that is from age 15 to age 64, which can make the poverty history in the town if employment opportunity is generated by concerned bodies, especially by MSEDP in the town.
Bule Hora town is the home for different ethnic and cultural groups. Regarding the ethnic composition of the town in 2007 Oromo above 72 per cent and others account about 28 per cent.
Regarding the religion composition in the town Orthodox Christian consists about 40 per cent, Muslim 29 per cent, protestant Christian 29 per cent, waqefata 1 percent, and others include children accounts 1 per cent respectively. This composition shows us that how there is the freedom of religion in the town and this is what must be encouraged in the future in order to develop the confidence of each religion to participate in the development programme.
Land use Bule Hora Master Plan, proposed land use plan of August 2007 classified the town’s land in to ten major uses that followed by details. Land for the residential use, land for Administration purposes, land for commercial and trade commercial, Land allotted for Services, land for Manufacturing and storage purposes that includes hand crafts and small scale enterprises, fuel stations and auto services, power generating plants and building materials production. The other classifications includes lands for Transportation that includes bus terminals, tax terminals, freight terminals vehicle training and parking lots; land for Recreation purposes, which includes open space such as stadium, sport field, public centre, indoor sports and formal green. The remained land is proposed to be used for Agriculture which includes animal husbandry, horticulture, grazing and other farming activities. Forest and informal green that includes green along rivers and streams, protective forest (buffer zone) and fuel wood forest. The last classification is the land use for special function such as reserved areas and buffer zone.
Geology Geologically the town’s surrounding area is known by trap series or the Cenozoic type of rocks, which can result in important mineral occurrences such as iron. The town is rich in exploitable water resource which is found at various depths. The depths of the ground water vary from 0 to 50 meters. The chemical quality of the water is from 0 to 3000 TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) PPM (Parts per Million).
Soils and Vegetation When the soil of the town is observed it is washable, fertile red clay and good for agricultural purposes. According to the National Atlas of Ethiopia, the town has different types of soils at different direction of the town. In the western part, there is Calcaric and Eutric soil units; in North Western and South Western part of the town there is Fluvisols soil units with flooding phases; in the South direction of the town there are Chromic and Orthic Luvisols soil units with stony phases and in North East direction of the town there is Dystric Nitosols soil units. There are different types of vegetation that cover the town. Naturally, the town is characterized by bush land or shrub land vegetation and surrounded by streams of Midhid, Dolcha, Abbayi and Bule.
Climate The topographic nature of the town is sloppy at the Eastern and Western directions of the town following the sides of East African asphalt road. The temperature of the town range from 20oc to 25oc with mean annual rain falls of 900 to 1100mm with big rains in spring and small rains in autumn. The average altitude of the town is 5990 feet or 1825meters. Regarding the moisture of the town it is dry sub humid with IM (moisture index) -20 to zero and with relatively longer growing periods of crops which is 124 to 210 days. There is a class II auxiliary station of metrology that can report the climate of the town to the southern Ethiopia metrology station which is found in Hawassa.
Social issues and socioeconomic activities Low quality of life, HIV/AIDS ,urban poverty, unemployment, low quality of housing, shortage of domestic water supply, lack of skilled man power ,street children, migration from rural to urban, lack of higher educational institution (university), low quality of feeder roads, lack of recreational centers are the major social issues.
The town is not only at the center of cash crops (coffee, chat, tobacco) growing and minerals (Gold, greenstone, precious stones, etc) rich rural kebeles and districts but also it is the center of market place for different regions. Although the town’s main activities are urban agriculture, commercial activities (both formal and informal), service and manufacturing, still the poverty and unemployment rate is high. As a result of this, more than 50 percent of the town’s population is under poverty line, which is making most of the town’s people restless in order to win their daily bread to survive.