Nile River running out of fresh water
By 2017 the Nile will have reached its limits when it comes to supplying fresh water for Egyptian agriculture. The river can no longer keep up with the rising demands for water and the Egyptian government has had to call a halt to further expansion of the agricultural acreage. It is expected that climate change will further diminish the fresh water supply.
Great challenge
Eelco van Beek, Dutch Professor in Water Management and scientist at water engineering institute Deltares will act as a moderator during the Nile delta case at Aquaterra 2009. According to Van Beek the main issue is how Egypt will feed its people and cope with the enormous environmental pressure. Two Egyptian experts will introduce the case with a dissertation on agriculture and water quality. “Egypt is on the brink of a great civil engineering challenge,” says van Beek. “To improve water quality many water treatment installations will need to be built.”
Concreting over fertile agricultural land
In addition to the dire water shortage, Egyptian agriculture is also being held back by the pressure on agricultural land in the highly fertile Nile delta. “Urbanisation in the delta is rapidly increasing due to population growth,” Van Beek explains. “This is driving agriculture away to the less fertile desert lands, which is a very unwelcome development.”
Van Beek also says that climate change is causing concern along the Egyptian coast. The economy in coastal cities such as Alexandria and Port Said is based on tourism and these cities are concerned about what will happen when the Mediterranean sea level starts to rise.
The spatial pressure, fresh water shortages and heavily outdated infrastructure in the Nile delta will be the subject of detailed discussions at Aquaterra 2009.
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