Egypt reviews situation of Nile seasonal flood for year 2021-2022

CAIRO – 18 April 2021:  Egypt’s Nile River Revenue Regulatory Committee affiliated with Egypt’s Irrigation Ministry held on Saturday a meeting to review the situation of the Nile seasonal flood for the current water year 2021-2022.

 

The meeting discussed the scenarios for the ministry’s dealing with water needs during this year in conjunction with the beginning of this water season due in July/August, according to a statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation.

 

It has been recommended during that meeting that rice farmers should abide by the Cabinet’s decision of allocating only 724,200 feddans (one feddan equals 1.038 acres) with rice in only nine governorates, besides cultivating 200,000 faddans of water-saving rice varieties.

 

Egypt needs at least 105 billion cubic meters of water annually to cover the needs of more than 90 million citizens. However, it currently has only 60 billion cubic meters, of which 55.5 billion cubic meters come from the Nile and less than 5 billion cubic meters come from non-renewable subterranean water in the desert. The remaining 80 billion cubic meters are covered by the reuse of wastewater.

 

A further decrease in Egypt's water resources is expected in light of the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which could have a negative impact on Egypt’s Nile water share.

 

In mid-July 2020, Ethiopian authorities unilaterally carried out the first phase of the filling process with 4.9 billion cubic meters; and it is expected that the second phase of the filling would reach 13 billion cubic meters, without reaching a legal binding agreement with Egypt and Sudan regarding the dam's operation and filling.

 

 

Additional reporting by Samar Samir