The study area lies in the central part of Ethiopia within the upper Awash River basin withrnparticular reference to the Koka and Becho areas. Koka is located in East Shewa Zone of Oromiarnregional state the center is located at North latitude of 8 026'27.56'' and longitude of 39 01'54.45''rnEast about 90 km south of the capital Addis Ababa. The Becho area is located between elevationsrnof 2062and 2109 m.a.s.l and the center is at 8.84Â° latitude and 38.36Â° longitude, with a total arearnof about 509 km2.rnThe main objective of this research is to evaluate the groundwater potential and to study thernchanges in groundwater use trends with time. In addition to convectional hydrogeology studyrnattempt was made to evaluate the recharge and discharge conditions. For the study of change inrnuse trends of ground water different data on ground water like the number of shallow dug wells,rnamount of land irrigated with those wells, and others are collected for the past five years andrnanalyzed for future management options of ground water.rnOn annual basis, the Koka area has 900.3 mm; 721 mm, and 27.31 mm of mean total rainfall,rnActual Evapotranspiration (AET), and groundwater recharge respectively, and for the Becho arearnthe results show that the mean annual rainfall of the area is 1026mm with actualrnevapotranspiration (AET) of 637mm, and recharge 227.34mm. The percentage of groundwaterrnrecharge to rainfall is about 22.2% in Becho while it is only about 3.03% of rainfall thatrnrecharges ground water.rnQuaternary alluvial and lacustrine deposits are major hydrogeologic units in the study area inrnaddition to this units, the Becho part is covered with massive ignimbrite which acts as regionalrnaquiclude which separates the upper and lower volcanic basaltic aquifers.The major waterrnbearing horizon of this aquifer is the fractured features resulted in secondary permeability.rnThe amount of land irrigated using shallow ground water in Koka area was only 330Ha in thernyear 2004 and in the year 2008, the area irrigated is about 1262Ha. The corresponding number ofrnshallow ground water wells used to irrigate this amount of land is increased from 250 to 2305rnwithin the past five years. In Becho area the amount of land irrigated using shallow ground waterrnis increased from only 97 Ha to 496 Ha in the last five years with the increase in number ofrnshallow wells from 202 to 935. Different reasons are identified for change in ground water use trend in the study area amongrnthem: technology access, on-demand groundwater services, water shortage in Awash, Modjo andrnTeji Rivers and market demand for agricultural products are identified.rnThe shallow ground water table data around the Koka area shows that the ground water tablernbecomes deeper and deeper as we go away from the lake and in turn the size of the lake isrndecreasing as a result of the shallow ground water pumping is increasing from year to year.rnThis study clearly identified problems in irrigation based agriculture. More innovativerngroundwater use in a sustainable manner demands proper water management practice. This has tornbe supported with better systematic control and research based groundwater use.rnKey words: Ethiopia, Groundwater potential, Ground water use trends, Koka and Becho areas,rnUpper Awash River basin.