Water Scarcity Crisis
6 August 2019
The water yield of the River Nile is becoming increasingly erratic as a result of climate change, which may have very grave consequences for Egypt.
To this day, the country of 98 million people is highly dependent on the river: 95 percent of the population lives along its banks, and 90 percent of the country’s water is also supplied by the Nile.
In recent years, however, the river’s water yield has undergone a number of changes due to global warming and human activities. Although in the region of the source of the Nile there is actually more rain than before, the distribution has become more irregular, and the torrential rains wash out fertile soil and block up the water channels of dams. In the near future, it is expected that there will be fewer years with near average water yields, while extremes (floods and droughts) will come to dominate.
Yet the country’s water demand exceeds what the river is able to supply year after year: reserves are running out, and the annual water deficit is as much as 20 billion cubic metres.
In Cairo, the water supply already fails regularly. In some districts, the taps are only turned on for three hours a day during the warmest months, but even then, a significant portion of the water is wasted due to the poor quality of the water network.
Source: Index.hu
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