Water Use Efficiency in Egypt

1
Water Use Efficiency in Egypt

• Dr. Mohamed. N. Allam
• Dr. Ragab Abdel Azim

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Water Resources in Egypt

• Nile River is the main source of renewable water
  in Egypt (55.5MBCM/Y)
• Rainfall is very limited and dominates on the
  north coast of Egypt (0.5 MCM/y)
• Deep groundwater is mainly in Western Desert and
  Sinai (very limited, non-renewable and costly)
• In Addition to the re-use of
• Agricultural Drainage Water
• Groundwater
• Treated sewage Water

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Water Demands

• Water Users
• Agriculture (85 of the total Demand)
• Municipal
• Industry
• Hydropower Generation
• Navigation

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4
Current Water (Climatologically)Management Zoning
III

• 3 zones
• Upper Egypt (1.0 MF)
• Middle Egypt (1.5 MF)
• Delta (5.7 MF)

II
I
Cultivated Area 8.2 MF
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Cultivated Land

• The cultivated land are estimated now by about
  8.2 million feddan.
• Out of this area 5.5 million feddan are old
  alluvial soils while the rest (2.7 million
  feddan) is old and newly reclaimed land. This
  newly reclaimed land is basically of sandy and
  calcareous nature.

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Irrigation Methods

• Surface and improved surface irrigation are the
  main methods used in the old alluvial soils. At
  the same time, there are some areas where
  sprinkler and drip irrigation are practiced, i.e.
  some of those are cultivated by fruit trees and
  vegetables.
• In the newly reclaimed land (sandy and calcareous
  soils) the use of sprinkler/drip is a must by
  law.

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Cropping Pattern and Crop Rotations

• The common rotations are the 2-year and 3-year
  rotations
• Areas specialized in vegetable crop production
  usually have three or four crops a year.
• Permanent or perennial crops include sugar cane
  and orchards

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Three-Turn Crop Rotation
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Cropping Pattern and Crop Rotations

• Other two practices are followed now in the
  cropping system
• Relay cropping, involving the sowing of a new
  crop with the last irrigation application of the
  grown crop. The two crops overlap for a short
  period of time before harvesting the first
  (grown) crop (sowing clover in the field of rice
  and maize).
• Intercropping, where a secondary crop is grown
  simultaneously with the main crop (planting onion
  at the same time with cotton and harvesting it in
  June, while the cotton crop continues until
  September another example is planting broad beans
  as a winter crop in the sugarcane fields in the
  sugarcane belt in the southern part of the
  country.

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Crop yield and Egypts Rank
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Water Balance and Efficiency
Overall Water use Efficiency 72
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Actions for Better Water Management

• Integrated Water Management
• Water Resources
• Quantity and Quality
• Participation of All users
• Physical improvement
• Rehabilitation of Water structures
• Irrigation Improvement Project
• Institutional Arrangements
• Water Boards
• Water Users Associations
• Irrigation Advisory services
• Extension services (Agriculture)
• Legal Requirements
• Modification of Law 48
• Modification of Law 12
• On-Farm Water Management
• Practices to increase water application and use
  efficiencies.