CAIRO: Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Nasr El-Din Allam announced on Sunday that this year will witness a decrease in the amount of water generated from the annual Nile river flood. Allam advised the public in general to ration their water consumption. He also asked farmers to depend on water from alternative resources for irrigation, such as recycled sewage water, to face the expected shortages. The minister further indicated that last year Lake Nasser only retrieved 51 billion cubic meters during the flood, down from 55.5 billion cubic meters in past years. According to Allam, Egyptians use 85 percent the Nile water for agriculture, and consume 9.5 billion cubic meters of water for drinking per year, which is a tremendous increase from the 1980s, when Egyptians consumed no more than 2 billion cubic meters of water a year. In a related note, Allam and the Minister of Agriculture Amin Abaza on Sunday made a joint statement regarding the removal of all agricultural projects irrigated by sewage water. The statement came after the two ministers held a press conference on Saturday at the Ministry of Agriculture in which they announced that they will enforce strict fines on any farmers caught using sewage. "The fines will include full seizure of their land and their products, the ministers said. At the conference, both ministers denied rumors of conflicts between the two ministries, which, they emphasized, shared common interests. Allam, who took the helm at the ministry a few months ago, has been active is making swift changes.
