Egypt annually loses 10 billion cubic meters of water from irrigation canals, drains: Expert

CAIRO – 7 August 2020: Egypt loses 10 billion cubic meters of irrigation canal water annually due to evaporation, said Professor of Soil Sciences and Water Resources in the Faculty of Agriculture at Cairo University, Nader Noureldeen on Friday.

In remarks to Al-Masry Afandy talk show on Al-Kahira we Al-Nas T.V. channel, Noureldeen added that the government has many ways to reduce losing this amount of water.

In 2019, Egypt announced the construction of the largest sewage water treatment plant to face water shortage that could affect around 0.5 million people in Sinai. The government’s efforts came amid Egypt’s concern over its Nile water share after Ethiopia has started building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile since May 2011. The tributary of the Ethiopian Plateau feeds 80 percent of the Nile’s water to downstream states [Egypt and Sudan].

Despite the government's efforts to save every drop of water as the country faces water scarcity, 98.4 million Egyptians still live under the water poverty line by 50 percent, below the international line of 1,000 m3.

"Egypt suffers from an annual 21 billion cubic meters gap between water consumption and production. The consumption reached 110 billion cubic meters, while Egypt currently has 60 million cubic meters annually," announced Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Atti in October 2018.

In January 2019, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi inaugurated a desalination plant in Hurghada that is considered to be the largest in the Middle East stretching on 56,000 square meters with a daily capacity of 80,000 cubic meters. The project called “Al Yosr” was executed in a cost of LE845 million.

Additional reporting by Samar Samir and Noha el Tawil