A few days ago, we celebrated World Water Day. The worldwide theme for the day this year was 'Clean Water for Healthy Life'. In Egypt, UNICEF and the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater have jointly launched a campaign with the same slogan. But officials and experts took the opportunity to talk about water problems in Egypt and to remind everyone that the Nile is becoming too precious a gift - " in other words, there's not the water available that there used to be. Ihab Shaarawy of the Egyptian Mail tackles some of the main issues raised on World Water Day and beyond.
Time to change our water culture Every morning, Mohamed Awad, a 50-year-old greengrocer living in one of Cairo's suburbs, begins his day by washing the floor of his shop with a hose. He then hoses down the pavement outside, leaving pools of water everywhere, much to the irritation of passersby. But Awad says that washing the pavement every morning is very hygienic and brings him good fortune. When blamed for wasting all this clean water, he never takes this blame seriously. "Do you mean that what I use every day will affect the level of the Nile?" he asks, as his face loosks puzzled. Awad is one of many Egyptians who still find it difficult to believe that Egypt is suffering from a water problem. The idea that Egypt has a great river that has supported the nation for thousands of years makes them feel at ease when thinking of water. But what Awad and many other Egyptians still don't know is that the per capita share of water in Egypt has fallen below the water poverty line of 1,000 m3 per annum. In Egypt, the Nile accounts for 97 per cent of the country's water. Egypt's share of its waters has, since 1959, remained at a constant 55.5 billion cubic metres per annum, while the population keeps on growing. It was in the 1990s that the per capita share fell below the water poverty line. Experts predict that the per capita share will fall as low as 582 cubic metres by 2025. "Egyptians need to change their water culture and stop dealing with water as if it were unlimited. They have to know that we live in a country that suffers water poverty," said Ahmed el-Maghrabi, the Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development, at the ceremony that launched the national 'Clean Water for a Healthy Life' campaign on March 22. El-Maghrabi added the misuse of water was costing the nation a fortune. "Still some Egyptians deal with water with disrespect. They treat it as something free and try to avoid paying for it," he continued, warning that a new law is on the way that will impose heavy sentences on these ‘water criminals'. He also said that, if Egyptians saved on drinking water, it might allow us to invest less heavily in this area, while the population keeps on growing. In 2007, Egypt had 175 large plants, 786 small water purifying stations and 1,703 artesian wells, in addition to 23 local units that all together served 79 million citizens. Egyptians pay nearly PT20 for a cubic metre of pure water, while the real average cost is about PT54. However, many houses and utilities get pure water without paying. According to the Holding Company for Water in Cairo, each Egyptian citizen consumes between 100 and 500 litres of water daily. Some experts say that a good way to change people's attitude towards water is to start selling it for the real price. But many people are against this, arguing that it will put yet another burden on Egyptian families, especially poor ones. Mohamed Nasr Eddin Allam, Egypt's Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources, agrees that water prices need to go up. "But this shouldn't affect the poor, so this should be done in categories like electricity, with people paying according to their consumption," Allam told a recent seminar in Cairo. For Awad and many other Egyptians, the idea of rising water prices is very annoying. "This will have very bad effect on the poor and their health," says Mostafa el-Kholi, a 40-year-old civil servant, adding that life is already hard enough as it is. Nadia Osman, a 30-year-old teacher, says that increasing the price won't make people use water wisely. "Media awareness campaigns could help. The Government should adopt policies that protect our resources and stop people using water to irrigate their golf courses," she suggests. Allam said that his Ministry had a plan for safeguarding water for agricultural and industrial purposes, in addition to drinking water. "We also hope to increase the agriculture land in Egypt by 3.4 million feddans by 2017. But we still have to face challenges like pollution, fish farms and haphazard agricultural planning. Some farmers still insist on growing crops that use huge amounts of water, such as rice and sugarcane." Allam said that fish farms consumed nearly 15,000 cubic metres of water per feddan per year, while a feddan cultivated with rice consumed nearly 8,000 cubic metres annually. This haphazard use of water has resulted in each Egyptian's share of water dropping to 750 cubic metres per annum, while in some countries the figure exceeds 1,500 cubic metres. This drop also means the food gap is widening every day.
