Sinai dams retain 6 million cubic meters of rainwater in October

CAIRO - 29 October 2019: For the first time in 10 years, the lake of Al-Rawafaa Dam in Sinai Peninsula was completely filled with rainwater, storing 5.3 million cubic meters, announced the state-owned General Administration of Groundwater in North Sinai on Monday.

Having filled the dam completely, water flowed from the dam spillway in Central Sinai heading to the city of Arish, North Sinai, through water channels, according to the statement.

Hundreds of residents in the peninsula expressed their happiness and spent all night watching the water flowing from Sinai mountains. Some of them documented the scene by taking photos and recording videos.

In the beginning, the level of floodwater flowed to Arish was estimated at an altitude of 30 to 40 centimeters, said Director of Public Relations at the North Sinai Municipal Alaa Atwa in a statement.

Larger cultivated areas

Benefits of rainwater floods boil down to feeding the aquafer of underground water in the peninsula and increasing the arable land, Sinai Governorate announced in another statement.

Agriculturally, the governorate will demand subsidies on wheat and barley fertilizers from the Ministry of Agriculture to not increase the cost of cultivation amid increasing arable land, the statement added. All public service bodies and facilities were on alert in preparation for this year’s floods.

“Approximately 15-20,000 acres are ready to be planted with wheat, barley and lentils after being irrigated with rainwater and floods over the past 24 hours,” Atef Matar, the Ministry of Agriculture representative in North Sinai, told Youm7, adding that the farmers will be given the needed fertilizers as fast as possible.

Al-Karam dam

In Central Sinai, the amount of water retained by Al-Karam Dam reached about 1 million cubic meters as of October 2019. The level of water was measured at 7.5 meters, said Head of Underground Water Section at the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation Sayed Serkis.

The lake of the dam has a storage capacity of 1.9 million cubic meters of water with a height of 15 meters.

Additional reporting by Mohamed Hussein from North Sinai