SALINIZATION OF FARMLAND, FRESHWATER, DESTRUCTION OF HOMES AND ANTIQUITIES. FACING FOOD, FARMLAND AND WATER INSECURITY. AN EGYPTIAN CASE STUDY

July 24, 2023 - As Russia bombs the Odessa Port breaking their UN Grain export agreement and blocking further shipments of wheat, the last boat of Ukrainian wheat arrives in Turkey. This breadbasket, supplying over 10 % of the worlds grain and 15 % of the worlds corn, is now closed off to the world. Countries in the Middle East and Africa depend on this grain for survival. Egypt has a >112,831,550 growing population, 1.4% of the world’s population and 14th fastest growth.

In Cairo, leaders of Egypt, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, the Central African Republic and Libya met this week to help resolve Sudan’s conflict killing more than 3000 people in June. During this meeting, Ethiopia and Egypt agreed to resume talks over the massive $4.2-billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) a controversial hydroelectric mega-dam that diverts the Blue Nile causing diplomatic arguments since 2011. Egypt relies on the Nile for 97% of its water needs and views this Dam as a threat, while Ethiopia sees it as an integral part of its modernization.

GERD along with 6 dams in Sudan: Sennar - Blue Nile, (capacity 0.07BCM); Jebel Awlia - White Nile, (3.0BCM); Khashm al-Girba – Atbara, (0.8BCM); Roseires Dam - Blue Nile, (heightened in 2014, 7.0BCM); Merowe Dam – Nile, (12.0BCM); Atbara/Setit Dam Complex (under construction) and 3 others (Kajbar, Shreik and Dal) to be built in Sudan, have greatly restricted freshwater access to Egypt causing salinization and political strife. In 2005, the Nile Basin Initiative recommended that no new dams be built in Sudan due to high evaporation rates, seven times higher than in Ethiopia.

The Nile is among the longest rivers in the world, 4,150 miles in length and drains ~1.1 million miles². No other desert region is so dependent on a single water system with no other feeding tributaries. Today, more than 90% of Egypt's population live adjacent to and rely directly on the Nile and its delta. To feed it’s growing population, Egypt is reclaiming Nile terraces and desert wadis. This effort along with the lack of fresh water, adequate drainage and renewed fertile alluvial soils from the Blue and White Nile headwaters has caused massive salinization of farmland, freshwater, destruction of homes and antiquities along the Egyptian Nile.