Developing Egyptian deserts is one of the keys to increasing food supplies, creating jobs, increasing revenues from agricultural and mineral exports and generating tourist revenues. It is equally true that population growth is consuming Egypt's agricultural production, which falls considerably short of needs, aggravated by the fact that urban expansion consumes vast tracts of agricultural land. Clearly, Egypt has no alternative but to expand land reclamation activities and press forward with a comprehensive development of desert land for the purposes of agriculture, industry, mining, petroleum excavation, tourism and technology. These efforts will demand water resources of sizeable quantities and energy resources within a legislative framework that stimulates activity and safeguards the rights of the state and the people. Marshalling such resources will also require administrative structures and personnel that are aware of the magnitude of their task and capable of shouldering their responsibilities effectively. In view of the threat to Nile waters in particular, we will desperately need additional sources of water. Accordingly, any drive to develop Egyptian deserts requires collecting information and facilitating procedures for various activities. This will include a concrete evaluation of subterranean water resources; energy resources for land reclamation and desert development processes; financial resources for reclamation and development; laws and regulations to organise and regulate desert development; marketing agricultural produce domestically and abroad; and promoting manufacturing and mining industries, tourism and human resources in new desert communities. Groundwater reservoirs, or aquifers, are located throughout the country, in the Western Desert, beneath the Delta and Nile Valley, in a few parts of the Sinai, in the Eastern Desert and the Red Sea area. Aquifers in the Nile Valley and the Delta are the result of the seepage of excess irrigation and drainage water on top of the waters from the annual Nile floods that have accumulated through the ages in the sediment of the Delta. But it is the Western Desert that contains the largest aquifers in Egypt. This system extends to the deep and broad Nubian sandstone aquifers. The natural springs and the age-old wells dug by the inhabitants of the Western desert are among the most important signs of the existence of significant quantities of subterranean water of a suitable quality. This prompted the government to turn to the desert and to use that subterranean water for the New Nile Valley development project. But some problems surfaced when those water resources were first tapped. Above all, water pressure and aquifer levels declined and water began to stop flowing naturally from the wells. Such phenomena alerted officials to the need to conduct thorough studies on the matter. These were soon forthcoming and, although opinions varied, there was a scientific explanation for the hydrological phenomena in the Western Desert. There are four levels of aquifers in the Nubian sandstone region in the southern Western Desert and six in the northern portion. The water in these reservoirs is generally under artesian pressure in areas that may or may not be connected, depending on subterranean geological circumstances. The thickness of the water-bearing strata decreases as we move southwards. In the southeastern Western Desert (Toshka, Darb Al-Arbaeen) and southwest Western Desert (Sharq Al-Oweinat), the thickness of the water-bearing strata ranges from 600 to 900 metres, half of which is saturated with water. The water-saturated thickness of the strata increases as we move northwards into the Dakhla, Farafra, Bahariya and Siwa oases. The depth of the aquifers ranges from 150 metres below ground level in Toshka and Sharq Al-Oweinat to 30 metres in the north. Studies also showed that the groundwater moved from the southwest to the northeast, and that its quantities increased the more we moved northwards. In addition, the deeper the water, the less saline it is. It has not yet been determined precisely how much water can be extracted, although this question has become extremely urgent and demands the immediate attention of hydrologists. The hydrological circumstances of the Nubian sandstone aquifer indicate that the drop in pressure and quantity is inconsistent with the potential of that reservoir and its geological configuration. The probable depth of its water-bearing strata is equivalent to the net depth of the sand strata in the Nubian rocky sector (since the water is under pressure), which ranges from 100 to 600 metres and extend northwards for about 600 km. This means that there is vast potential, especially in light of available information on the distribution, depth and design of the wells, and that the drop in water levels and pressure must be attributable to other causes. Foremost among these are the lack of information and statistics in the early phases of the desert land reclamation projects and, consequently, the use of incomplete and contradictory information to obtain estimates of the quantity of available water, which is still under dispute. As a result of this, decision-makers were not properly equipped to draw up effective policies for the optimum use of groundwater resources in the Western Desert while, I should add, considerable misinformation has subsequently been disseminated by the claims and assertions of non-experts via satellite TV and other media. The fact is that a drop in piezometric pressure in previous phases in the Dakhla, Kharga and other areas is a normal phenomenon with artesian aquifers. After being put to use, such aquifers undergo a number of changes until they become hydrologically stable. It has also been established beyond a shadow of a doubt that the wells were poorly distributed and placed too close to one another, especially in Kharga Oasis and Sharq Al-Oweinat. Therefore, water extraction caused closely spaced depression cones that, in turn, caused a stop in the water flow or a drying up of relatively shallow wells, as was the case in Kharga and Sharq Al-Oweinat. In addition, the poor design of wells, concentration of extraction operations within a small area, and the poor quality of the piping material used in the wells, which caused their premature corrosion, combined to cause drops in pressure, reduction in the productivity of the wells and even the collapse of some wells. Differing estimates of the amount of groundwater in that huge aquifer system was cited as evidence by those who maintained that water resources in the Western Desert were insufficient. Such arguments drove away potential investment in groundwater extraction operations and technology, in spite of its crucial importance. However, circumstances have changed, presenting us with the opportunity to scientifically reassess our subterranean water resources, not just in the Western Desert but elsewhere in the country. There now exists the political will to move outside the narrow confines of the Nile Valley and the Delta and into the deserts. That will is expressed in land reclamation and desert development projects. Second, the urgency of development compels us to use every drop of water that can be made available in order to develop our deserts, especially given that Egypt's quota of Nile waters will not increase while the population will, and given the dangers of climate change. We should note here that diversifying and integrating modes of development would increase returns per unit of water. Third, investment projects in the Egyptian desert will depend for their success on the balanced linkage between resources (land, water, capital, technology and human resources) and potential returns. Accordingly, groundwater, as one of the most important resources in the desert, is a crucial factor on which can be based investment projects. In addition to the foregoing, we now have a huge storehouse of geological, geophysical and hydrological data that will serve to clarify the picture beneath the surface of the deserts, and to devise more precise mathematical and analytical models. The results of surveys and analyses will allow the development of policies in which subterranean water can be put to optimum use in projects ranging from mega to micro levels. Of course, such policies will also need to include solutions for possible problems that may arise in the future. We also now have a huge storehouse of Egyptian expertise in hydrological research, technology, design and related disciplines. Created over the course of the past 40 years, this storehouse is to be found in the institutes of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, the Ministry of Agriculture and our national universities. Yet, amazingly, this resource has not been properly tapped, in spite of the current move into the desert and the need to benefit from specialised expertise. Once we recognise that the political will and other essential ingredients exist, the next step is to devise a comprehensive system for the integrated management of water resources. Such a system will need to take into account the needs of stakeholders and to offer them the necessary support and expertise that will enable them to properly operate and maintain wells, and to develop small companies responsible for managing wells. The system should simultaneously encourage young entrepreneurs and skilled talents to move to the new areas and initiate mining and quarrying projects, desert-based industries, tourist projects and other ventures. At the same time, it is important to bear in mind that regular evaluation of land reclamation and land-use projects does not signify that they are in danger. Rather, the periodic objective assessment processes are part and parcel of modern scientific management and have proven crucial to averting problems before they arise or to handling them effectively and quickly if they do arise. Respecting our water resources in Egypt is a religious, patriotic and moral duty. The first basic principle that we must observe in order to safeguard these resources is to acknowledge that we are poor in water resources and that this water poverty compels us to follow the essential rules and principles of the hydrological sciences. After all, water is life. The writer is former president of Menoufiya University and an expert on Egyptian water issues.
