Discussed: What prohibitions set in Egypt’s irrigation law to protec water resources

CAIRO -  4 June 2022: Approved by the parliament in 2021, Egypt’s new water resources and irrigation law sets a number of prohibitions for the protection of water.

As Article 92 stipulates, it is prohibited to do any of the following acts, namely:

-       Wasting water resources by exceeding the prescribed or authorized quantities or spending them unnecessarily in a private or public drain or in A covered drainage network.

-       Using water in lands that are not planned for irrigation or that is not licensed for irrigation, or using it for unlicensed purposes.

-       Using an unlicensed irrigation method, obstructing the flow of water in the Nile River and its branches, or waterways, or a covered drainage network or a stream exit.

-       Placing pegs to connect nets in the Nile and its two branches, or bridges of waterways or at its bottom, or in the bridges of the basin of one of the aqueducts, locks or bridges and Lake Nasser.

-       Backfilling by throwing silt or dust and the like into the course of the Nile River and its branches, waterways or on bridges of any of them or in a covered drainage network.

-        Using fresh water to feed fish farms without the approval of the Ministry.

-       Cutting Nile bridges or waterways, digging and taking soil, stones, or any other work within public property related to resources.

Article 125 of the draft law stipulates that anyone who violates any of the provisions of those clauses shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year and a fine of not less than LE 10,000 pounds and not more than LE 50,000 pounds, or one of these two penalties, and the penalty shall be doubled in case of repeating the violation.