EGYPT is diving rapidly below the water poverty line. This warning coincides with the ongoing disputes over Nile water sharing between Egypt and the other Nile Basin countries. The local press is competing to publish official and international reports that place Egypt's quota of the annual Nile water at 800 cubic metres per person – 200 cubic metres below the international standard. Since 1959, Egypt's quota of the Nile water has been limited to 55.5 billion cubic metres, regardless of the population growth from 30 million people to this year's figure of 80 million. About one billion metres are obtained from subterranean water. In the meantime, about 214 villages across the country have no adequate access to drinking water from the Nile. A study recently concluded by the National Centre for Scientific Research increased local fears by warning that unless Egyptians rationalise their water consumption, the nation's thirst would be unquenchable sooner than expected. The study said that dilapidated water networks were responsible for the loss of more than 45 per cent of drinking water in the country, losses that cost the state LE1 billion. Regular maintenance and the construction of properly equipped waterpumping stations would help stop the wasting of drinking water. Places of worship and tourist establishments are also said to be major sites of water wastage. In an attempt to manage the situation, the Ministry of Housing and Public Utilities has proposed a ban on hosepipes, the illegal supply of water to residential or non-residential buildings, and stealing equipment from or damaging water stations. Mohamed el-Alfi, Chairman of the Cairo-based Potable Water and Sanitation Authority, said that the violators in this respect would receive prison sentences and hefty fines. Losses of potable water can also be attributed to seasonal habits in society, such as when citizens hose down the streets with water to lower the temperature in summer. Egypt's anxieties over the short supply of water were also exacerbated in the wake of the recent signing of the new Nile Treaty in Entebbe, Uganda, when local newspapers and magazines intimated the possibility that the countdown to 'water war' had begun in Africa and other parts of the world. Ominous signs appeared on the horizon after the World Health Organisation, in collaboration with the World Water Council, estimated the number of people worldwide who were desperate to quench their thirst to be 1.1 billion. The report released jointly by these two organisations, excerpts of which were published in the local media, also mourned the death of eight million people every year due to contaminated or unhealthy water, including the deaths of 1.8 million children per year from diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid and malaria.
