Egypt upgrades irrigation system over more than 7K feddans

CAIRO 11 April 2020: Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation has implemented a number of development projects in irrigation systems over an area of 7,476 feddans (1 feddan = about 1.038 acres) in investments estimated at LE 183,739 million, announced the ministry in a statement on Saturday.

The projects aim at changing the surface irrigation systems into the drip irrigation system, using solar energy to rationalize water consumption, the statement added.

In 2018, the government announced that it had a unified plan to use the field irrigation system for watering an area of 5 million feddans to meet the increasing demand for water.

Egypt suffers from a water deficit of 30 billion cubic meters. It annually needs at least 90 billion cubic meters of water to cover 90 million citizens’ needs. However, it currently has only 60 billion cubic meters, of which 55.5 billion cubic meters come from the Nile and half a billion cubic meters come from non-renewable subterranean water in the deserts.

Egyptian population growth is projected to increase by 2050 to 65-75 percent, causing a challenge. Hence, the Ministry of Irrigation is adopting a water security strategy by desalinating water, managing wastewater and rationalizing water usage.