308
H. Elbasiouny and F. Elbehiry
component of the economy. Even though its performance stayed relatively modest
in the last few years, it has successfully attracted considerable investments. Agriculture employs about 31% of the labor force, and about 14% of the GDP is produced
by agricultural production. Because of the favorable agro-climatic, perennial water
supplies and rich fertile soils, Egypt produces a diversity of crops, vegetables, and
fruits for feeding its population and earning foreign exchange through exports. The
country’s main crops include cotton, rice, wheat, sugarcane, beet, clover, fodders,
vegetables, sesame, peanut, sunflower, beans, lentils, and onion, in addition to fruits
such as citrus and dates [45].
Water resources in Egypt are limited to the Nile River, rainfall, and deep groundwater [47]. The water of the Nile River has a great value for Egypt as it provides
approximately 95% of its water needs. Egypt’s portion of the water of the Nile River
is almost 55.5 billion m
3 . Agriculture uses most of it; about 85.6% of the used water.
This verifies the saying “Egypt is the Nile’s Gift” as Egypt does not have a large
portion of the rain, so we find that life in Egypt is concentrated on the sides of the
Nile and any shortage in the of supplied water in the river inevitably causes a disaster. The Nile River stems from two springs in the upper lands in Ethiopia and the
lakes that cover parts of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Congo. Then the Nile flows
till North Cairo and reaches to its two main branches, Damietta, and Rashid (about
6680 km from its springs till the Mediterranean Sea) that end in the Mediterranean
Sea [48, 49]. The river revenue is featured by two main periods, flood period during
August, September, and October in which the river increases, and Althariq period
in the other months of the year in which the river revenue is declining a lot. The
annual revenue of the three major tributaries of the Nile is around 84 billion m
3 ,
where approximately 48.7 billion m
3 form the Blue Nile, 24.4 billion m
3 of form the
White Nile and 10.9 billion m
3 for the branch of Atbara [49]. With the fast growth
in the population and increasing water consumption in different fields, such as agriculture, industry, domestic use etc., it is supposed that Egypt will relay somewhat
on the groundwater to develop some new projects such as East Eweinat. There are
two main ways that can reduce concise demand with supply by reducing demand
or by increasing supply. Despite the increasing shortage of water, there are almost
no indications of efforts to reduce water demand in the three-main water-consuming
sectors [48].
In Egypt, water planning established in 1933 for using extra storage capacity that
was available after the second elevating of both dams of old Aswan and the Gabal
El-Awlia in Sudan. This plan generated programs for many purposes such as land
reclamation, conversion of some basin irrigation to perennial irrigation, and increases
the rice cultivation area. This strategy was first revised in 1974 and again in 1975
when a new plan was prepared to hold the further volumes of water resulting from
the construction of the Aswan High Dam. The multi-year regulatory storage capacity
posed by the Aswan High Dam was a reason for stability to Egypt water resources
by delivering a reserve storage capacity during years more than the requirements and
providing additional resources during loan year. Currently, adopting more efforts are
running for water management and application of different available water resources
[48]. Although there are several uses for water in Egypt, agriculture engages about
H. Elbasiouny and F. Elbehiry
component of the economy. Even though its performance stayed relatively modest
in the last few years, it has successfully attracted considerable investments. Agriculture employs about 31% of the labor force, and about 14% of the GDP is produced
by agricultural production. Because of the favorable agro-climatic, perennial water
supplies and rich fertile soils, Egypt produces a diversity of crops, vegetables, and
fruits for feeding its population and earning foreign exchange through exports. The
country’s main crops include cotton, rice, wheat, sugarcane, beet, clover, fodders,
vegetables, sesame, peanut, sunflower, beans, lentils, and onion, in addition to fruits
such as citrus and dates [45].
Water resources in Egypt are limited to the Nile River, rainfall, and deep groundwater [47]. The water of the Nile River has a great value for Egypt as it provides
approximately 95% of its water needs. Egypt’s portion of the water of the Nile River
is almost 55.5 billion m
3 . Agriculture uses most of it; about 85.6% of the used water.
This verifies the saying “Egypt is the Nile’s Gift” as Egypt does not have a large
portion of the rain, so we find that life in Egypt is concentrated on the sides of the
Nile and any shortage in the of supplied water in the river inevitably causes a disaster. The Nile River stems from two springs in the upper lands in Ethiopia and the
lakes that cover parts of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Congo. Then the Nile flows
till North Cairo and reaches to its two main branches, Damietta, and Rashid (about
6680 km from its springs till the Mediterranean Sea) that end in the Mediterranean
Sea [48, 49]. The river revenue is featured by two main periods, flood period during
August, September, and October in which the river increases, and Althariq period
in the other months of the year in which the river revenue is declining a lot. The
annual revenue of the three major tributaries of the Nile is around 84 billion m
3 ,
where approximately 48.7 billion m
3 form the Blue Nile, 24.4 billion m
3 of form the
White Nile and 10.9 billion m
3 for the branch of Atbara [49]. With the fast growth
in the population and increasing water consumption in different fields, such as agriculture, industry, domestic use etc., it is supposed that Egypt will relay somewhat
on the groundwater to develop some new projects such as East Eweinat. There are
two main ways that can reduce concise demand with supply by reducing demand
or by increasing supply. Despite the increasing shortage of water, there are almost
no indications of efforts to reduce water demand in the three-main water-consuming
sectors [48].
In Egypt, water planning established in 1933 for using extra storage capacity that
was available after the second elevating of both dams of old Aswan and the Gabal
El-Awlia in Sudan. This plan generated programs for many purposes such as land
reclamation, conversion of some basin irrigation to perennial irrigation, and increases
the rice cultivation area. This strategy was first revised in 1974 and again in 1975
when a new plan was prepared to hold the further volumes of water resulting from
the construction of the Aswan High Dam. The multi-year regulatory storage capacity
posed by the Aswan High Dam was a reason for stability to Egypt water resources
by delivering a reserve storage capacity during years more than the requirements and
providing additional resources during loan year. Currently, adopting more efforts are
running for water management and application of different available water resources
[48]. Although there are several uses for water in Egypt, agriculture engages about