Hammo Al-Omrani, the coordinator of the regional initiative of the Department of Water Demand of the Research Center for International Development in Canada, called on the Egyptian government to cancel the subsidy for water, pointing out that fees should be imposed on the rich and the businessmen who use large quantities of water in their businesses at the expense of the low-income bracket, as he put it. He said: "You cannot equalize what is paid by a person living in Imbaba or Mansheyet Nasser, who supports a family of 12 and who finds no healthy water, with what is paid by someone living in a posh district like Maadi or Garden City." He told Al-Masry Al-Youm: "Most of Egypt's water resources policies do not set priorities for the low-income people, as it always supports the agricultural projects and the industries of the big farmers and businessmen at the expense of domestic needs and in the absence of laws to govern the use of water."
In his study of the rationalization and re-use of water in the Arab region, Omrani warned of politicizing the issue of water, as opposed to looking at it as a problem of development that has social and economic dimensions that could obstruct the process of diversifying the water resources. In a symposium of the Desert Development Center of the American University the day before yesterday, Omrani warned of what he called a 'gap' in Egypt between the politicians and the scientists of water research, whereby the politicians take the decisions on water resources instead of consider it an issue of development that has economic, social and environmental dimensions on the long run. He urged the Egyptian government to deal with the water crisis as a government and not as an interest group, wondering how the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources alone handles the water file, without the participation of other developmental organizations.
He said that Egypt has a unique and complex problem in terms of the high pollution rate of the Nile water due to dumping the waste and residues of the factories in it, which makes the cost of the water treatment equal to that of its desalination. On the development projects in Egypt's desert, Omrani said the Toshka and the Salam Canal projects did not achieve what they were hoped to, and that it looks like there has been some miscalculation.
On the Development Corridor idea he said: "The feasibility studies of the project have been considerably improved compared to before, and there is a strong financial cover," noting that Egypt's cumulative experience in major projects over the past years could help develop its water resources. Omrani advised the Egyptian government to use the groundwater as a strategic reserve to face water shortages in the coming years, as well as to reduce pollution in the Nile and expand from the Nile Valley into new urban communities. On water conflicts between Egypt and the Nile basin countries, especially in light of the possibility of no rainfall in Ethiopia, Omrani said Egypt is able to address the conflict between the nine Nile Basin countries peacefully, and also with the Sudan and Ethiopia, stressing that Egypt is no exception in this matter, as the conflict over water is global and political. On the Dead Sea Canal that Israel wants to excavate, he said it is Israel that will benefit from it first, followed by Jordan, noting that the only effect of withdrawing water from the Red Sea is the destruction of the coral reefs, which means an environmental destruction of the living see organisms of this region.
