35
3.3 Water Resources of Egypt
3.3.1 Water Resources Quantity
Water resources in Egypt are very limited, where more than 95% of it is received
from outside of its international borders. The Nile River is the main water resource
in Egypt. Egypt shares the Nile water with nine countries (Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea,
Tanzania, the Democratic Congo, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Kenya). Egypt
also lies at the end of the Nile’s route toward the sea. The annual share of Nile River
water was determined in an international agreement by 55.5 billion cubic meters
(BCM). The High Aswan Dam is the major regulatory facility on the river. The
annual share of the Nile is stored in Lake Nasser. The Nile water is driven from the
dam downstream by intensive network of canals through several types of control
structure (Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation 2005).
Groundwater is one of the most important resources after the Nile River. Ground
water is the portion of the water beneath the surface of the earth that can be collected
with the wells, tunnels, drainage galleries, or that flows naturally to the earth’s surface via seeps or springs (Ashour et al. 2009). There are different groundwater aquifers with variable importance for exploitation in the Nile river region. They are
ranging from shallow local aquifers, recharged by rainfall, to deep non-replenish
aquifers. The first category comprises groundwater in the Nile Valley and Delta
system. The second aquifer category is the non-renewable type, which is located in
the Western Desert-Nubian Sandstone Aquifer (Abdel-Shafy and Kamel 2016). The
current total abstraction of the groundwater is only 2.0 BCM per year as a result of
great depth, up to 1500 m in some area (Ministry of Water Resources and
Irrigation 2013).
Table 3.4 Crop coefficient (Kc) and crop evapotranspiration (ETc) values for different summer
field and vegetable crops
Crop
Kc ini
Kc mid
Kc end
ETc (mm)
Cotton
0.27
0.99
0.63
675
Maize
0.21
1.03
0.58
690
Rice
0.34
0.61
0.47
757
Sorghum
0.18
1.06
0.50
717
Soybean
0.21
1.11
0.39
684
Sunflower
0.21
1.09
0.37
616
Wheat
0.23
0.85
0.85
480
Cucumber
0.20
0.91
0.86
728
Eggplant
0.20
0.98
0.83
824
Pepper
0.22
1.10
0.69
546
Potato
0.22
1.10
0.65
788
Tomato
0.23
0.90
0.70
479
Source: Ouda (2019)
3 Egypt Faces Water Deficiency, and Food Insufficiency
3.3 Water Resources of Egypt
3.3.1 Water Resources Quantity
Water resources in Egypt are very limited, where more than 95% of it is received
from outside of its international borders. The Nile River is the main water resource
in Egypt. Egypt shares the Nile water with nine countries (Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea,
Tanzania, the Democratic Congo, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Kenya). Egypt
also lies at the end of the Nile’s route toward the sea. The annual share of Nile River
water was determined in an international agreement by 55.5 billion cubic meters
(BCM). The High Aswan Dam is the major regulatory facility on the river. The
annual share of the Nile is stored in Lake Nasser. The Nile water is driven from the
dam downstream by intensive network of canals through several types of control
structure (Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation 2005).
Groundwater is one of the most important resources after the Nile River. Ground
water is the portion of the water beneath the surface of the earth that can be collected
with the wells, tunnels, drainage galleries, or that flows naturally to the earth’s surface via seeps or springs (Ashour et al. 2009). There are different groundwater aquifers with variable importance for exploitation in the Nile river region. They are
ranging from shallow local aquifers, recharged by rainfall, to deep non-replenish
aquifers. The first category comprises groundwater in the Nile Valley and Delta
system. The second aquifer category is the non-renewable type, which is located in
the Western Desert-Nubian Sandstone Aquifer (Abdel-Shafy and Kamel 2016). The
current total abstraction of the groundwater is only 2.0 BCM per year as a result of
great depth, up to 1500 m in some area (Ministry of Water Resources and
Irrigation 2013).
Table 3.4 Crop coefficient (Kc) and crop evapotranspiration (ETc) values for different summer
field and vegetable crops
Crop
Kc ini
Kc mid
Kc end
ETc (mm)
Cotton
0.27
0.99
0.63
675
Maize
0.21
1.03
0.58
690
Rice
0.34
0.61
0.47
757
Sorghum
0.18
1.06
0.50
717
Soybean
0.21
1.11
0.39
684
Sunflower
0.21
1.09
0.37
616
Wheat
0.23
0.85
0.85
480
Cucumber
0.20
0.91
0.86
728
Eggplant
0.20
0.98
0.83
824
Pepper
0.22
1.10
0.69
546
Potato
0.22
1.10
0.65
788
Tomato
0.23
0.90
0.70
479
Source: Ouda (2019)
3 Egypt Faces Water Deficiency, and Food Insufficiency