Captain urges Egyptian peasants to prevent water scarcity through responsible usage

The head of the Peasants’ Syndicate in Egypt, Hussein Abdel Rahman Abu Saddam, warned against using flood irrigation methods instead of modern methods.

He said that there is no escape from the rapid transition to irrigation with modern methods and the prevention of flood irrigation, since we need about 115 billion cubic meters annually, and agriculture consumes about 75% of water, and all water resources about 65 billion cubic meters per year.

He pointed out that flood irrigation depletes water and contributes to rising water tables and gradation of lowlands, thereby reducing productivity and increasing agricultural costs.

Abu Saddam stressed that the main water resource in Egypt is the Nile River, and despite the growth in population and the expansion of reclamation and cultivation of the desert, Egypt’s share in the Nile is annually fixed at 55.5 billion cubic meters. that due to the lack of precipitation in Egypt and the weakness of the groundwater supply, we resort to paying for water scarcity by reusing water and purifying it many times for use, importing virtual water in the form of food and crops, desalination of seawater by lining canals, creating many national water conservation projects, rationalizing our consumption such as flood evaporation, irrigation of fields, dams and dams, and preventing encroachment on river waters.

He noted that despite all these efforts, which cost the government billions of pounds annually, the share of water per capita is decreasing daily to less than 550 cubic meters per year, below the water poverty line known as 1,000 cubic meters of water. per person per year, which, with an increase in local water demand, has no alternative to switching to modern irrigation methods, such as sprinkling or drip irrigation, and preventing flood irrigation that consumes huge amounts of water without maximizing this, which often leads to root rot, an increase in plant diseases , the spread of insects and harmful pests, the weakening of crop yields.

He emphasized the need to raise awareness of the importance of every drop of water and the inevitability of a transition to modern irrigation systems with the provision of the necessary machinery, materials and equipment at reasonable prices, the reduction of plantings of water-hungry crops, the elimination of harmful aquatic weeds and changing the farming system in accordance with our water resources in the light of inappropriate climate change, which contributes to the rate of evaporation and drought at times, while maintaining the cleanliness of watercourses and preventing the discharge of waste into them, constantly monitoring our water resources and covering canals passing through cities and villages, in parallel with the implementation of all gigantic national projects associated with the drainage of agricultural land and the modernization of water management.

Source: RT