THE CRISIS EGYPTIANS DO NOT CARE ABOUT- THE NILE DELTA CRISIS

Image from https://www.ecomena.org/egypt-nile/

By Mohamed Elmawardy
November 3rd, 2020

Without the Nile river, there would be no Egypt. We, Egyptians, have been the masters of the
rivers since the Ancient Era. However, because of our actions and behavior, the Nile, our main
fresh water source, has never been under such strain. The continuous pollution, climate change,
and rapidly increasing population could cost us our valuable Nile!

Egypt is currently and has been struggling to cope with water shortages since the 1950’s. In
1959, to be exact, an agreement between Egypt and various other African countries have agreed
and signed upon that gives Egypt 55.5 billion cubic meters a year. During this time, the
population of Egypt was only 20 million. In 2010, the population has quadruples, and got to 80
million, and is still increasing at an exponential rate. However, our Nile share remains the exact
same. Although there are many water sources in
Figure 1: Egypt’s water sources 2011-2012 in billion cubic Egypt, we rely very heavily on the Nile water
meters
that originates outside the Egyptian borders by
just over half (53.3%), as shown in figure 1.
The second and third ranked, respectively, were
ground water in delta and valley, and agriculture
water. A very small
percentage was Figure 2: annual rain fall in various Nile countries.
given to rain and
reused sewage water. Interestingly, although
Egypt is the bay for the Nile river, it is actually the least country that gets rainfall, annually. In
figure 2, it shows how rainfall in Egypt is almost close to 0, showing us that Egypt is facing

water scarcity, hence they are depending on the Nile as discussed and shown in Figure 1.
Egyptians have to realize that without the Nile, there would be no Egypt. If we look at any area
that is over 100km away, in any direction, from the Nile, it would be abandoned or deserted.
Deserts with no one living near it, far away from water sources. However, the Nile brought to us
Egyptian a huge Water supply, fish-that helped with the income of many Egyptians, and various
crops as it made the land fertile.

Water Waste:

When it comes to the Nile, most Egyptians do not know the importance of it and why we should
always cut down our water consumption to reduce waste. Firstly, we Egyptians have no idea how
to use the Nile’s water efficiently. Sadly, it is how we were raised, on the specific mindset as if
the Nile’s water is endless and will last forever. We can even see billions, of liters of water going
to waste, as Egypt has a very poor recycling plans. The recycled water from the sewage was only
1.3 billion cubic meter. We did not mention the people who throw water in front of their shops to
attract more customers or for “Tarawa”. The irrigation systems in Egypt also needs some
attention from the government, as the old irrigation system that is still used in some parts of
Egypt, where the land gets watered for hours to get irrigated. By the modern day system
(Dripping irrigation), it the same results, if not better, can be achieved in only 15 minutes with
less man power and higher efficiency.

Water Pollution and Quality:

We all know the harsh truth, we have all even seen it with our own eyes. Have you ever seen
anyone throwing something in the Nile in front of you? Unfortunately, most Egyptians do not
care about the Nile. We dump our wastes, and animal wastes in the Nile. From table one, the
fecal coliforms, which is a form of bacteria found in human and animal waste. In all of the three
drains in the nile delta from 2000-2008, we can see that it is drastically higher than the
 permissible limits, indicating high levels of water pollution, making the water not suitable for
human usage. For instance, 104535 - 4201839 in the Gharbia drain.

Table 1: Water quality indicators at three drains in the Nile Delta from 2000-2008.
WQI* Omar
Permissible Gharbia Sabal
weight Bek
Parameter Description Limits Drain Drain
(Total = Drain
Law48/1982 2000-8 2000-8
1) 2000-8

It measures the amount of life

Dissolved 2.23- 0.74 - 1.84 -
sustaining oxygen dissolved in the 5 mg/l 0.17
oxygen 2.97 2.58 5.34
water.

Fecal This is a form of bacteria found in 104535 - 54217 – 3208 –

2000 cfu/100 0.16
coliforms human and animal waste. 4201839 3830500 1350833

It is a measure of the acid or alkaline 7 - 8.5/std 7.78

pH values 0.11 7.24-7.56 7.75-7.19
content in water (alkaline>7 >acidic). units -7.29

Moving away from Egyptian’s responsibility, the external damage caused by our neighboring
countries are much worse. As the Nile originates from Ethiopia, countries building dams also
like Ethiopia would cause the Water levels to decrease tremendously. As Hani Raslan said, “any
project that will decrease the amount of water the Egyptians receive from the Nile is a death
sentence”. Scientists believe that by 2025, the water flowing to Egypt will decrease by 20%,
decreasing the water per person ratio even more. The water per person ratio in Egypt is already
the lowest, compared to any of the Nile countries, and moving forward, it will decrease more.

What we have to do:

Although people may panic now, thinking there is no solutions to this, I will disagree and tell
them that there is hope to fix everything, but it will take time.
Firstly, we need to educate Egyptians and help raise awareness of all the issues mentioned above.
We are in this disaster together.
Secondly, we have to educate people how to reduce water wastes. I propose that the government
should give quotas for Egyptians and increase the price of the water for anyone who exceeds this
quota. This would reduce water waste as people would start to know the value behind the water
they use. As for irrigation, we MUST invest in newer technologies and use them to save water,
become more efficient, and sustainable.
Thirdly, we must enforce strict laws about water wastage and water pollution, in which we fine
anyone who would hurt our valuable Nile.
Luckily, if we started ourselves, we will all take a stance and succeed. An amazing company
called Shadouf have been inventing new ways to making Egypt more sustainable. They aim to
use all the rooftops of most buildings to grow plants, pesticide free, and using minimal water. As
the Egyptian population is growing and growing, if this was implemented on a bigger scale,
Egypt will be able to decrease the water wastes, and decrease the usage of agricultural products
and the strain on those products would decrease.
So, every Egyptian should relate to at least one of the hundreds of songs about the Nile and take
a stand. Are you going to do something?
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