The future looks bleak if Egypt does not implement an efficient policy to manage its water resources, reports Rehab Sayed Ahmed Alarms have recently been sounded about Egypt's limited water resources. Surface water resources originating from the Nile are fixed at 55.5 billion m3 (BCM) a year and are being completely used, whereas non-renewable ground water sources in the Western Desert are being brought into full production. The situation is worsening by growing water requirements, demanded by a population boom which needs more agricultural areas to produce more food. Egypt is the 15th most populated country in the world. Its population has tripled during the last 50 years and is expected to reach 95 million by the year 2025. Mohamed El-Sayed, deputy general coordinator of the Arab Network for Environment and Development, says the current water resources per capita is 850 m3 a year and is expected to drop less than 500 m3 in 2025. Egypt receives about 98 per cent of its fresh water from the Nile River originating outside its international borders. Khaled Abu Zeid, secretary-general of the Egyptian Water Partnership, stresses the necessity of adopting active diplomacy with the Nile basin countries. The Nile's watershed is shared among 10 countries. Lake Nasser sustains Egypt's annual share of water based on an agreement with Sudan in 1959 which forbids upstream nations from conducting any activity that threatens the water quotas of Egypt and Sudan, Abu Zeid said, adding that Ethiopia contributed with about 86 per cent of the Nile's water but utilised less than one per cent of its yearly quota. That drove Egypt to work on a bilateral legal framework with Ethiopia to guarantee Egypt's share of water. Rainfall is not considered a dependable source of water since it occurs only in the winter in the form of scattered showers with an annual amount of about 300mm. Nevertheless, ground water in the Nile aquifer is an additional source of fresh water since it gets its water from percolation and leakage losses from irrigated lands and irrigation canals. Ground water is considered a reservoir in the Nile River system with about 7.5 BCM per year of rechargeable storage. "Ground water also exists in non-renewable deep aquifers in the Western Desert and in Sinai with the current total abstraction estimated at only 0.5 BCM per year," Abu Zeid said, adding that organisations like the Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CDARE) adopted a project in cooperation with Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Chad on how to share and regulate each country's use of underground water in order not to affect the share of its neighbouring countries. Water scarcity hinders sustainable development and expansion of cultivated areas to meet increasing food requirements. Ali Abu Sodiera, secretary- general of the Environmental Affairs sector, says the agriculture sector "is the largest user of water in Egypt with its share exceeding 80 per cent of the total demand for water. Also, municipal and industrial water supply demand is expected to increase." Population growth and industrial and agricultural developments are producing severe pollution of both surface and ground water resources. Minister of Public Works and Water Resources Mahmoud Abu Zeid sounds a note of caution over high-ceiling pollution in Egypt. "Egypt's annual losses owing to air pollution is $2.5 billion. Moreover, water pollution costs Egypt $800 million a year." Climate change and global warming have a further effect on water resources in Egypt. "A mean surface temperature rise has been recorded over some Egyptian regions. Temperatures ranging between 0.01 to 0.04 centigrade per year have been projected. Temperature increases are expected to reach around four centigrade by 2060. Global change is anticipated to increase water demand by an average of five per cent," Abu Sodiera said. On the effects of climate change Abu Zeid said, "Desertification would be aggravated by increases in erosion and reductions in soil fertility. Significant sea level rises along the Mediterranean shoreline could sweep away about one- quarter of the agricultural land of the Delta and displace millions of people." The development of Egypt's economy strongly depends on its capability to conserve, manage its water resources and implement an appropriate water sector policy. The minister said, "Satisfying future demands in Egypt depends on better utilisation and efficient use of present water resources. Optimal water management is an essential prerequisite for sustainable development of Egypt." In order to deal with water scarcity, Egypt presented its National Water Resources Plan (2002-2017), the first country in the region to achieve the 2005 Integrated Water Resources Management planned target following the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. Abu Zeid elaborates, "The strategy 'Water for the Future' is based on four principles: develop additional resources; make better use of existing resources; protect public health and environment; and improve institutional arrangements." He added that the plan would be implemented through a collaborative effort involving several ministries, and had benefited from the participatory approach which had been chosen, and which had involved users, planners and policymakers at all levels." Non-conventional ways, new technologies and mechanisms are ways of combating the insufficiency of water. For example, techniques are being developed to harvest flash floods due to short-period heavy storms in the Red Sea area, southern Sinai and some parts of Upper Egypt. "This water could be directly used to meet part of the water requirements or it could be used to recharge shallow ground water aquifers. It is about one BCM of water a year," El-Sayed says. Desalination of seawater in Egypt has been given scant priority as a source of water because of the high cost of desalination. Abu Zeid pointed out that desalination is used to provide domestic water supply for some locations along the Mediterranean and the Red Sea coasts as well as in the Sinai Peninsula since the cost of constructing pipelines to transfer Nile water is comparatively high. The re-use of agricultural drainage water has been practiced for a long time as most drains in the Nile Valley flow back into the river's mainstream. In the Nile Delta, an official policy for re-using agricultural drainage water was adopted in the late 1970s. Abu Sodiera takes pride in declaring that the annual use of pesticides and fertilisers in agriculture has dropped from 60,000 to 5,000. "Also organic fertilisers are largely used in order to re-use agriculture drainage water." In addition, treatment of domestic waste water for potential re-use are available in large cities where wastewater collection networks exist to collect domestic wastewater. Still, there is concern that all the efforts by the government along with NGOs to find solutions will come to naught if people do not rationalise their irrigation and domestic utilisation patterns. "The government has launched a public awareness programme aimed at informing the public of the major achievements in water management," Abu Zeid said. "A simplified version of the water resource policies and its associated strategies and future plans to execute these policies are also demonstrated."
