Annapia Debarry is Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn, Germany. She has a background in Cultural and Development Geography, and her research interests include feminist political ecology and emotional geographies. The findings in this article are part of her dissertation project, which explores emotional and embodied perspectives on ‘visionary waterscapes’ in Ethiopia, where water-focused policies and visions of development materialize in the form of dams, irrigation schemes and river beautification projects.