Alexandria -- The government hopes to alleviate Egypt's water shortage by increasing the water supply coming from Africa, and also by changing laws on domestic water consumption, an official from the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources said in a speech yesterday. Diaa el-Deen el-Qusi, consultant to the Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources, spoke in Alexandria at a conference on managerial affairs. El-Qusi said that banana would be added to a list of restricted crops and unveiled a "water solidarity system" that will provide free water to the poor and impose fees on golf courses, swimming pools and agricultural investment projects. El-Qusi proposed that one solution to Egypt's water shortage could involve linking the Nile to other water basins, such as the Bahr el-Ghazal Basin in Southern Sudan, and the Congo River Basin in central Africa. The Congo Basin empties 1,400 billion cubic meters of water into the Atlantic Ocean annually, said el-Qusi, adding that Egypt's annual allocation of Nile water is 55 billion cubic meters. "There are obstacles to linking those basins to the Nile Basin; so the future requires hard work. It's similar to digging the Suez Canal, which began as an almost unfeasible project," he said. El-Qusi also called for concluding deals with countries of the Nile Basin. For example, he said, Egypt could provide those countries with medical and engineering services in exchange for more water. He also said that Egypt should buy land in Sudan and Ethiopia. Others attending the conference weighed in with their visions Egypt's future. Mohamed Ibrahim Mansour, head of the Future Studies Center of the Information Center of the Cabinet of Ministers, said, "Political development in Egypt is going in different directions. It's like having two train conductors each driving the train in a different direction." Maged Othman, president of the Information and Decision Support Center of the Cabinet of Ministers, said that the youth should be left to be creative. He added that there is a prevailing feeling of helplessness and passivity in the society. Instead, he said, Egyptians should be thinking about what should be done and how prepared society is to implement plans. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
