Report on Nile River Basin bolsters Egypt
A new report indicates that, despite claims to the contrary, Egypt is not receiving an inflated share of the Nile's waters.
A recent study, if taken into consideration, may tip the balances of the ongoing negotiations between the Nile Basin countries. According to the data gathered, it proves that Egypt receives the least share from the Nile River Basin water. The project on monitoring and evaluation of water in North African countries, funded by the African Water Facility, completed five reports on the state of water in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Mauritania to be presented at the next African summit. It also served the purpose of putting forth shared policies to face the scarcity of water in some African countries that suffer from severe shortages.
The report on Egypt was associated with a report on the Nile Basin that consisted of a detailed study on the state of water in the Nile Basin as well as all water resources in every Nile Basin country, be it rainwater, groundwater or surface water. It specified the shares naturally available to each country according to all real water resources, not any single one. This has bolstered Egypt’s position in the ongoing negotiations with Nile Basin countries, especially since the latter use many times the amount of water Egypt does in their pastures and forests alongside a great deal of waste in ponds and swamps, an allegation to which they do not admit.
Al-Monitor received the data included in the study of the state of water in the Nile Basin prepared by Khaled Abu Zeid, the regional director of monitoring and evaluation of water in North African countries at the Center for Environment and Development in the Arab Region and Europe, led by a team of researchers. The study is still in its final stages, leading up to a presentation at the next African summit. The study laid out two groups of data for rainwater, the first dealing specifically with the Nile Basin, and the second dealing with rainwater within the borders of Nile Basin countries (looking more broadly at the Nile Basin as well as the basins and valleys of other rivers in these countries).
According to the data collected in the study, the total rainwater falling in the Nile Basin is 1,600 billion cubic meters per year. Meanwhile, the total rainwater falling on Nile Basin countries both within and outside of the basin itself is 7,000 billion cubic meters annually.
